A speaker box found in the rear cargo area of a vehicle stopped at the checkpoint on Highway 4 wasn’t used to blast music for some weekend fun at Boca Chica Beach.
Instead, Border Patrol agents say they found a Mexican national hidden inside the speaker box.
Federal authorities arrested Jonathan Mendoza Gutierrez, born in 1998, and Dalton Garret Underwood, born in 1994, at the Highway 4 checkpoint on June 26 after Border Patrol agents discovered Benito Arriaga-Ramirez concealed within the speaker box, according to a criminal complaint.
Gutierrez and Underwood, who are scheduled to appear today in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald G. Morgan for probable cause and detention hearings, are charged with conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants with a motor vehicle, court records show.
The pair of alleged smugglers arrived at the Highway 4 checkpoint at 3 p.m. on June 26 in a silver GMC Yukon and told Border Patrol agents that they were both U.S. citizens.
The agents reported not being able to see inside the rear cargo area because of the vehicle’s dark window tinting and requested consent to search the vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.
The agents immediately noticed a large speaker box in the rear cargo area with two holes located on the top, court records indicate.
When they peered inside, they reported seeing a human leg.
The agents, who were concerned for the safety of the person inside, pried open the box and discovered Arriaga-Ramirez, according to the criminal complaint.
