Border Patrol agents at the Falfurrias checkpoint arrested a couple after they found people illegally present in the United States under and inside a toolbox. Another person was also found inside a cooler.
Agents arrested Angel Ricardo Rodriguez and his girlfriend, Elisa Delagarza, on attempted human smuggling charges to pay off a debt they owed to a friend they called “Frankie.”
At around 8:15 p.m. Thursday, agents encountered a black Chevrolet Silverado driven by Rodriguez, who was accompanied by Delagarza and stated he was a U.S. citizen upon being asked.
“The agent noticed his voice stutter as he responded,” the criminal complaint said. “Rodriguez stated ‘no’ when the agent asked him if he had any form of identification.”
The complaint also states that the agent noticed Rodriguez was visibly shaking when he explained that the vehicle belonged to a friend.
When asked where they were headed, both said they were going to Dallas which struck the agent as strange due to their lack of luggage and belongings in the truck, according to the complaint.
“The agent noticed the bed contained a toolbox, a tarp partially concealed under the toolbox and a large cooler,” the complaint said. “The placement of the tarp and the cooler were both reminiscent of methods previously encountered by agents as ways to conceal illegal aliens.”
When asked for consent to search the bed, Rodriguez held up a copy of a Texas Department of Public Safety traffic citation, which is a method smugglers use to try avoiding an immigration inspection, according to the affidavit.
A K-9 unit then conducted an open air inspection and alerted authorities to the Silverado.
At the secondary inspection, agents found a man concealed under the rear seat of the truck, a woman underneath the toolbox behind the tarp, another person inside the toolbox and a fourth person concealed inside the cooler.
“While being placed under arrest and escorted into the checkpoint, Rodriguez made a pre-Miranda excited utterance, telling the agent ‘This is my first time doing this,’” the complaint said.
Rodriguez said he received a call from the friend named Frankie at around 4:30 p.m. about a job he could do to pay a debt he owed him and drove to a residence on Legacy Lane in Edinburg with Delagarza, where they picked up the black Silverado loaded with people.
Delagarza stated that at a certain point in the drive they heard someone banging on the toolbox in the back and called Frankie for help, further stating that Frankie met them at a Family Dollar to calm the woman.
That woman, who’s a citizen from El Salvador, told authorities that she began banging on the toolbox because she believed it was going to fall on her.
The couple are set to appear before Magistrate Judge Jason B. Libby for their detention hearing Thursday morning.
