REGION: New details in arrests of immigrants posing as Marines
A second suspicios van remains at large
Their vehicle wasn't right. They didn't know the Marine Corps' birthday. And they failed to give a "hoo-rah" when asked to do so.
Those were some of the clues that tipped a Border Patrol agent, who just happened to be a former Marine, to suspect that a van full of people dressed as Marines were really illegal immigrants, according to an amended criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Diego.
"This effort is an example of the lengths smugglers will go to avoid detection, and the skilled and effective police work and vigilance displayed every day by Customs and Border Protection personnel," Department of Homeland Security officials said in a statement provided by Border Patrol Agent Jerry Conlin, spokesman for the San Diego sector.
When agents stopped the van near Pine Valley, none of the 15 people inside ---- including 13 illegal immigrants dressed as U.S. Marines ---- was able to give the date of the Marine Corps' birthday. One agent, a former Marine, knew that tidbit gets drilled into recruits during basic training.
The March 14 encounter would end in the arrest of the occupants of the oversized van, bearing stolen and altered government-issued license plates, according to the criminal complaint.
The complaint names four men, including the driver of the van, as defendants. Federal prosecutors charged them with human smuggling.
Three of the defendants ---- Arturo Leyva Jr., who was the alleged driver; Jose Guadalupe Ceja Jr., the front-seat passenger; and Guadalupe Garcia Jr., who was driving a different car ---- are U.S. citizens, according to authorities.
The fourth defendant, Said Rodrigo Preciado-Torres, is a Mexican who had a valid border-crossing card, the criminal complaint states.
Attorneys for Leyva and Ceja did not immediately return comment Wednesday; court documents did not specify the names of the attorneys for Garcia and Preciado-Torres.
The brazenness raised a host of troubling, still unanswered questions: How did they get the uniforms? Are there current or retired Marines involved in the lucrative smuggling business? Were the uniforms only to trick immigration authorities or did the immigrants have more serious, military intentions?
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service ---- the investigative arm of the Navy, which includes the Marine Corps ---- has teamed up with the Border Patrol to find out.
"If people are pretending to be Marines for criminal reasons, we'll want to know why," said Ed Buice, spokesman for the Navy's investigative arm, known as NCIS.
Buice, however, said he couldn't discuss details of the investigation.
According to the federal criminal complaint, Agent S. Smith, who works out of the Border Patrol's Campo Station, was in plain clothes and driving an unmarked car when he noticed two large white passenger vans on the road with him.
The Border Patrol declined to give first name of the agent.
Smith noted that the first van bore Department of Homeland Security-issued license plates, but the body of the van was not the sort that Smith knew DHS vans to be, raising his suspicions, the complaint states.
And the license plate on the second van didn't reflect quite right in Smith's headlights; one of the numbers appeared to have been altered, prosecutors allege.
When Smith caught up to the second van and caught a glimpse inside, he noticed that the camouflage uniforms the occupants wore didn't jibe with what Smith knew Marines to wear, the complaint states.
Smith radioed ahead to a Border Patrol checkpoint near Pine Valley to report the find.
The complaint does not address what happened with the first van, but agents at the checkpoint stopped the second van and questioned driver Leyva and front-seat passenger Ceja. Both men had the name "Lopez" on their uniform name tag.
The driver told Smith that everyone in the van was a Marine. The agent asked the occupants of the vehicle if he could get a "hoo-rah," a cheer Marines are taught in boot camp; only Ceja responded. The other passengers "continued to sit like statues and remain silent," the federal complaint states.
Driver Leyva was unable to state the Marine Corps' birthday, another lesson Marines learn in boot camp. None of Leyva's passengers was able to produce military identification or immigration documents, and most told agents they were from Mexico.
Eleven were sent back to Mexico. The other two have been detained as material witnesses in the case.
In the meantime, agents learned that the driver of a green Mitsubishi Eclipse spotted on Interstate 8 near the two apparently fake government vans was also a part of the smuggling plan, the complaint states.
They located and pulled over the Eclipse, then turned up military insignia underneath the front seat. Agents arrested the driver, Garcia.
Further investigation led agents to believe the other van had been driven by Preciado-Torres. He was arrested Tuesday, more than a week after the incident, when he crossed from Mexico into the U.S. on foot.
The defendants are due back in a San Diego federal courtroom Tuesday for their preliminary hearing.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sd...f1a19478c.html