EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – An El Paso federal grand jury has indicted two men in connection with an attempt to breach a storm drain near the Rio Grande to smuggle migrants.
The charges stem from an Aug. 4 incident in which U.S. Border Patrol agents responded to a sensor alert in an area commonly utilized by smugglers about 1.5 miles east of the Bridge of the Americas port of entry in El Paso.
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The agents allegedly witnessed two men using tools to pry open a grate preventing access to the storm drain system. The men became “combative” when the Border Patrol agents arrived and one tried to flee on foot, but both were apprehended, court records show.
The two men were taken to the Paso del Norte Border Patrol Processing Center and determined to be Mexican citizens illegally present in the United States.
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In a post-arrest interview, Javier Esteban Obregon Flores told agents that smugglers in Juarez hired him to carry a backpack with a drill and a hammer and act as a “lookout” once he and another man illegally entered the United States…