Feds: Harlingen women agreed to smuggle immigrants (KGBT-TX)

Feds: Harlingen women agreed to smuggle immigrants

By Sergio Chapa
Wednesday, September 02, 2009 at 6:31 p.m.

Two Harlingen women are behind bars after they allegedly agreed to try to get two illegal immigrants through the Sarita checkpoint.

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Melissa Medrano and Kassandra Nicole Puga on human smuggling charges on Saturday.

Court records show that the two drove up to the Sarita Border Patrol Checkpoint with two passengers.

Border Patrol agents determined that the two passengers were illegal immigrants.

The two women allegedly told agents that they had agreed to take the immigrants to Houston.

The two said a man named “Joshua Castillo” was going to pay them when they got back to his house in Harlingen.

Medrano and Puga appeared before U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Ronald Morgan in Brownsville on Tuesday.

Immigrants Sagrario Rodriguez-Cabrera and Irma Hernandez-Cabrera were given $5,000 bonds.

But Judge Morgan ordered that the two Harlingen women remain in custody without bond until a Friday hearing.