For the third time in several weeks, authorities have busted smugglers using Hidalgo County airports to try to fly people in the country illegally to northern cities.
On Sunday, Homeland Security Investigations special agents conducting surveillance at the Mid-Valley Airport in Weslaco arrested a trio of suspects after authorities found six people in the country illegally aboard an aircraft.
James Martinez, a U.S. citizen born in 1998, Luis Armando Lopez-Alvarado, a U.S. citizen born in 1993, and Desiree Love Rodarte, a U.S. citizen born in 2001, were all charged with transporting people in the country illegally.
The HSI special agents reported in a criminal complaint that they watched Martinez and Lopez drive two vehicles around the airport in a manner consistent with counter-surveillance.
“Martinez and Lopez had been previously identified as transporters in another potential smuggling incident at the Mid-Valley Airport approximately a week prior,” the complaint stated.
That document said that following the “counter-surveillance activity,” Martinez and Lopez returned to the airport and dropped off Rodarte and six other people.
HSI special agents watched as they boarded a Beechcraft charter flight and arrested all of them after boarding and conducting an immigration check, according to the complaint.
Both Martinez and Lopez declined to provide statements, but Rodarte told agents she made arrangements to transport the people from various locations in Hidalgo County to the airport so they could be transported further into the country, according to the complaint.
The suspects were scheduled to make a first appearance Monday morning in McAllen federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker.
On Friday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said it stopped a smuggling attempt at McCreery Aviation Co. in McAllen.
In a news release, the agency said that just after 11 a.m. a DPS special agent received information from a concerned citizen about three unknown vehicles that dropped off a group of people at the airport.
“The agent arrived and was assisted by a DPS Aircraft Pilot who notified traffic control to ground a Raytheon fixed-wing plane and conducted a ramp check after suspecting the aircraft was being used for human smuggling,” the news release stated.
Border Patrol arrived and determined 19 people were in the country illegally and DPS said in the release that the plane had been destined for Houston.
The people in the country illegally were turned over to Border Patrol and DPS said that its Criminal Investigations Division and HSI are investigating.
On Aug. 31, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a news release that the agency received information about people in the country illegally trying to board a private plane at the South Texas International Airport in Edinburg.
DPS arrived and two vehicle pursuits at the airport were initiated, according to the release.
“Both vehicles eventually came to a stop, where multiple people were observed fleeing into the nearby brush,” the release said.
Border Patrol agents arrested 13 people in the country illegally.
The release noted that one of the fleeing vehicles struck a DPS vehicle and both drivers were taken into custody.
