Border Patrol arrested a Mission couple Monday after they admitted they rented out recreational vehicles to hide people who illegally entered the United States.
Abundio Arriaga and his wife Sandra Guadalupe Lopez-Sauceda were arrested after being caught transporting eight people in two separate vehicles.
After her arrest, Lopez-Sauceda told federal authorities she was “concerned because her children were at the property” along with nine other undocumented people, according to a criminal complaint.
The arrests occurred after authorities conducted surveillance on a house in Mission. During the surveillance, authorities saw several RVs parked on the property along with two other vehicles that were later seen leaving the area.
Hidalgo County Sheriff’s deputies conducted a traffic stop on a Chevrolet Silverado and questioned the driver — later identified as Arriaga, the owner of the property — and his passenger, Carlos Emilio Nino-Arita, about smuggling attempts near the Mission property.
Although Arriaga denied his involvement in smuggling attempts, he told authorities that he allowed people illegally in the country to live in the RVs on his property.
The second vehicle, another Chevrolet Suburban, was stopped by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, the driver was later identified as Lopez-Sauceda, Arriaga’s wife, who was traveling with six other people. Each of the six individuals admitted to being illegally present in the U.S.
Arriaga told authorities that he was the owner of the property and the RVs there, and claimed that he and his wife rented out the RVs. He also told the agents that “he doesn’t care if the renters are illegal,” the complaint stated.
He and his wife had been renting the RVs for about a year and would provide food, clothing and any other necessities to renters, according to the complaint. He also admitted to taking each renter’s phone and burning them in a trashcan.
At the time of the arrest, Arriaga admitted to traveling with one renter, Nino-Arita, while his wife was traveling with six other renters.
Nino-Arita, a native of Honduras, told authorities that he had paid 200 pesos to cross the Rio Grande by raft and was later picked up and transported to Arriaga’s property.
The couple made a first appearance Wednesday in McAllen federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker who ordered them temporarily held without bond pending further proceedings, court records indicate.
