BENTON COUNTY : Van stop snares 12 illegal aliens (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

BENTON COUNTY : Van stop snares 12 illegal aliens

BY MICHELLE BRADFORD
Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008

A 19-year-old van driver likely faces a federal human trafficking charge after he was stopped along Interstate 540 by a Benton County sheriff ’s deputy and found with 12 illegal aliens in the back of the vehicle, police said Wednesday.

The driver of the van, Osvaldo Cruz-Arellanes, told police he was being paid to smuggle the 12 occupants to Chicago, Memphis, Pennsylvania, Virginia and other locations, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

Deputy Corey Coggin wrote in a report that the 12 people were “packed” in the back of the van, with some of them “balled up lying on the floor.” Coggin stopped the van about 11: 30 p.m. Tuesday near Wagon Wheel Road because he couldn’t read the writing on the paper license plate, the report states.

Temple Black, a spokesman for U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New Orleans, said the occupants — eight men and four women — will be deported to Mexico. They range from age 17 to 57, according to the report.

Black said Cruz-Arellanes likely faces a federal charge related to human trafficking.

The U. S. attorney’s office in Fort Smith declined comment, and the sheriff’s office didn’t provide additional information. Police would not say where Cruz-Arellanes is from.

Cruz-Arellanes initially told Coggin he was lost and traveling from Arizona to visit family in Tennessee, the report states. The deputy saw a hand-drawn map and jugs of water near the console and probed further.

Cruz-Arellanes acted nervous and couldn’t specifically say where his family lived other than, “Ah, Memphis,” the report states. He didn’t have a driver’s license, and his cell phone rang repeatedly as he talked to Coggin.

The 12 crossed near Douglas, Ariz., the news release states.

Deputies also found an atlas, a religious artifact and a jug of urine inside the van, which was turned over to federal immigration agents.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING
The U. S. State Department began monitoring trafficking in persons in 1994. It is estimated that 14, 500 to 17, 500 people, primarily women and children, are trafficked to the U. S. annually.

According to the State Department’s 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report, the U. S. Department of Justice charged 116 individuals with human trafficking in 2005. Forty-five were convicted, of which 35 were implicated in sexual exploitation.