EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A federal grand jury has leveled felony conspiracy charges against a Red Rock, Arizona, couple who told authorities their only crime was getting paid to ferry miners from a town near the Mexican border to their worksite.
The “miners” turned out to be migrants the couple picked up on a stretch of highway known as a busy smuggling corridor, documents filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona show.
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Wednesday’s indictment stems from an Aug. 5 incident involving Border Patrol agents tracking a black 2021 Hyundai Sonata that drove past on State Road 86 with two occupants and returned an hour later with four.
The agents followed the Sonata and allegedly saw two people in the back seat suddenly trying to hide. They put on their emergency lights and ordered the driver to pull over.
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Records show driver Aracely Joey Rosas told agents the uncle of a former department store coworker had hired her to transport workers from Sells, Arizona, to a mine in the Tucson area. The pay was between $700 and $1,800 and she and her boyfriend were struggling to provide for their 5-month-old baby, so Rosas said they took the job…