EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – An Arizona resident is facing federal felony charges thanks to an inopportune incoming cellphone call as he was being questioned by Border Patrol.
Border agents on Feb. 1 stopped a blue Ford Focus driven by David Rene Martinez, a U.S. citizen, along Naco Highway near Bisbee, Arizona. The agents had spotted unauthorized migrants going into a Bisbee neighborhood less than 200 yards from the border wall. Their cameras tracked the Focus going into the neighborhood at 4:42 p.m., and coming out and heading for the highway a few minutes later.
One house, nine smuggling events
Court records show the agents followed the car and ordered the driver to stop. The agents asked Martinez if anyone else was in the vehicle and he said no. As they were conducting the interview, the agents heard a cellphone ringing in the trunk of the vehicle.
According to a criminal complaint filed on Feb. 2 in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the agents asked Martinez to open the trunk of the car and he consented but then claimed the trunk would not open. The agents asked if he could lower the backseats to peek at the trunk, and Martinez allegedly said, “Oh, shit” when the person in the trunk became visible, records show.