Alien Smugglers Use Ambulance Service to Get Through Checkpoint

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Presidio EMS in the news

http://www.cbs7.com/news/details.asp?ID=11836

Alien Smugglers Use Ambulance Service to Get Through Checkpoint 4/14/09

Border Patrol News Release

April 14, 2009

Marfa, Texas - A clever smuggling scheme in Presidio County, Texas, came to an

abrupt end March 5, 2009, with the arrest of a Presidio man who had been using

an ambulance service to transport illegal aliens past a Border Patrol

checkpoint. Lionel Armendariz-Cabezuela, 38, was arrested by Immigration and

Customs Enforcement agents following a six-month investigation by the Border

Patrol and ICE.

Agents of the U.S. Border Patrol's Marfa Sector had received a report that a

person had feigned an illness in order to be transported to the Big Bend

Regional Medical Center in Alpine from Presidio. The trip includes passing

through the Border Patrol Checkpoint south of Marfa.

Armendariz has been charged with alien smuggling. Allegedly, someone in Mexico

could contact a person in Ojinaga who would assist them in crossing the Rio

Grande River where they would be met and taken to a location in Presidio. They

would be coached in how to call for ambulance service and then fake an illness,

either chest or abdominal pain. Reportedly the cost to the illegal alien for the

effort was $3,700.

Ironically, Armendariz became ill while being interviewed by agents at their

office in Presidio and had to be transported by the same ambulance service to

the hospital.

Armendariz has plead guilty to the charges.

http://www.kwes.com/global/story.asp?s=10184212

Presidio Man Admits to Human Smuggling Scheme Involving Ambulances

Staff Report

NewsWest 9

A Presidio man admits to his part in a human smuggling scheme involving

ambulances.

38-year-old Lionel Armendariz-Cabezuela was arrested back in March following a

six month investigation by the Border Patrol and I.C.E.

Agents say Armendariz used an ambulance to bypass the border checkpoint to

smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S.

We're told he instructed clients to fake an illness, and when they were met at

the border they would be taken to the hospital in Alpine.