Nine Immigrants Arrested In Traffic Stop (The Morning News)

Nine Immigrants Arrested In Traffic Stop
Last updated Friday, April 24, 2009 7:37 PM CDT in News
By Caleb Fort
THE MORNING NEWS

A traffic stop Thursday evening in Bella Vista ended with the arrest of nine illegal immigrants, including two teenage sisters, authorities said.

Three of the immigrants will face federal felony charges for re-entry into the United States, officials said Friday. All will eventually be deported, said Sgt. Brandon Rogers, head of the Benton County Sheriff's Office Crime Suppression Unit.

All nine were Mexican nationals, Rogers said.

Members of the suppression unit were patrolling U.S. 71 in search of gun, drug and human trafficking, Rogers said. One of them, Deputy 1st Class Corey Coggin, noticed a black Dodge Durango with Arizona license plates. Rogers said the driver began driving erratically when he saw Coggin, and the Durango crossed the center and sidelines.

Coggin pulled the Durango over near Trafalgar Road.

Inside the seven-passenger SUV were nine people, water bottles, open maps, no luggage and a smell like an outhouse, all signs of human smuggling, Rogers said.

"It's terrible the way these guys travel," Rogers said.

Crammed into a vehicle, they stop as little as possible to avoid attracting attention, using plastic jugs to urinate instead of bathrooms, Rogers said.

The maps showed routes to New York and the Northeast, but the driver, Eliodoro Adame-Ortega, said they were traveling from Phoenix to Fort Smith, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.

Adame-Ortega and two others will face federal charges for re-entry, Rogers said. Adame-Ortega will also face federal charges related to transporting the other eight, Rogers said.

Rogers said he did not have any further information about those arrested. They were released to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Fayetteville, he said.

Temple Black, a spokesman for ICE, said the two juveniles and their family members were released with an order to appear before an immigration judge.

ICE was still holding five of the immigrants, he said. ICE is not allowed to release any personal information, such as names or ages, even in the case of criminal charges, he said.