DERBY, Vt. – Saturday night, Border Patrol agents assigned to the Newport station arrested a man and woman, both citizens of Mexico, during a failed smuggling attempt.
“This case is an excellent example of importance of information sharing between the United States Border Patrol and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” said U.S. Border Patrol Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Pfeifer. “The Swanton Sector relies on its partners to secure the international border, and the quick sharing of information is a major part of the sector’s success.”
At approximately 6:50 p.m. on Saturday evening, Border Patrol agents assigned to the Newport Station encountered two men driving a white Nissan Sentra near the international border in Derby. Both men claimed to be U.S. citizens from North Carolina and had rented a room at the Border Motel. About a half hour later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police observed two people with large backpacks enter the United States illegally just east of the town of Derby and notified the Swanton Sector.
While agents were attempting to locate the two people that had entered illegally, they saw the two men they had previously encountered driving the Nissan Sentra in the area also. The men drove the car slowly, flashing its lights, and turning around often. The car remained in the area about 20 minutes before agents followed the Sentra back to the Border Motel and observed the two men return to their room. The agents then saw the two men exit the room with luggage, get in the Sentra, and drive it towards I-91. When agents saw the Sentra enter the southbound ramp to the interstate, they saw that the Sentra now contained four people and performed a traffic stop.
Besides the two men, the Sentra contained a man and woman sitting in the rear seat. During an immigration interview, the man claimed to be a citizen of Mexico, but the woman refused to state her citizenship. Agents arrested the driver and front passenger for alien smuggling, a felony under 8 USC 1324, and the two rear passengers for illegal entry, a misdemeanor under 8 USC 1325.
Border Patrol agents brought the four to the Newport Station for additional record checks and further processing. Those checks revealed that the Mexican man, age 36, had been previously removed from the United States in 2014, after an arrest in Buffalo, New York in 2008. The checks also revealed that the woman, 39, was also a citizen of Mexico. At the station, both Mexican citizens confessed to entering the United States illegally. Both will be returned to Mexico.
The Swanton Border Patrol Sector is seizing the 2012 Nisan Sentra, and the two U.S. citizens from North Carolina were released.
The Swanton Sector is responsible for securing the land border between ports of entry in Vermont, New Hampshire and northeastern New York. The coordination with assistance of citizens is invaluable to the Border Patrol's border security mission and we welcome community members' help to keep our nation’s borders safe. Please report suspicious activity at 1-800-689-3362.
For more on Customs and Border Protection’s mission at our nation’s ports of entry with CBP officers and along U.S. borders with Border Patrol agents, please visit the Border Security section of the CBP website.