Border agents nab alleged smugglers, 14 migrants at El Centro stash house

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – An ex-con who told authorities he was “trying to turn his life around” after completing probation is among four people in custody in connection with a migrant stash busted by the U.S. Border Patrol last Wednesday in El Centro, California.

Agents assigned to the Intelligence Unit of the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector knew something big was coming down after learning that a Ford F-250 pickup linked to previous migrant smuggling attempts had just entered the U.S. through the Calexico West port of entry.

The truck stopped at a gas station on State Route 7 near the international boundary fence, the driver made some phone calls and drove east along the All-American Canal that runs parallel to the U.S.-Mexico border.

The crew of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter known as “Troy” witnessed the Ford F-250 stop and several individuals run to hide under a tarp over the bed of the pickup. Court records show the Ford drove toward Interstate 8, exited at El Centro and entered a residential neighborhood.

The truck parked in an alley behind an apartment complex where many people under the tarp exited. Court records show a second vehicle, a silver BMW parked next to the F-250, where a man later identified as Adolfo Angel Machacek exited and talked to the pickup’s driver. A third vehicle, a white Ford Focus, arrived, and the lone occupant identified as Martin Ulises Salcedo joined the conversation.

Machacek and the driver of the F-250 – a minor only identified as S.V.P. – allegedly walked 14 undocumented migrants up to an apartment on the upper floor of the complex. Border agents conducting surveillance allegedly saw Salcedo walking up the stairs to the apartment and, through an open window, witnessed the three accommodating the migrants in the rear of the living quarters.

The Border Patrol deployed an unspecified number of agents to the apartment complex and began engaging the suspected smugglers one by one.

According to court records, Machacek “immediately fled on foot.” He rushed down the stairs and broke toward the alley, where two border agents apprehended him.

Salcedo also bolted down the stairs but was arrested by a waiting Border Patrol agent, records show.

The agents apprehended 14 individuals inside the apartment determined to be foreign nationals with no legal basis to be in the country. They also found the juvenile driver, S.V.P., and detained him. A fourth individual identified as C.J. Lira, who had accompanied Machacek to the complex in the BMW, also was arrested.

All four suspects are U.S. citizens.

Only Machacek agreed to waive his rights and speak to the agents. He told them he resides in Westmoreland, California, and was on his way to pick up his child from the mother’s house. He allegedly said he agreed to meet a friend in El Centro prior to that.

He told agents he saw several migrants in the backyard of the apartment complex and that a man asked him if he wanted to “make some money for taking care of the illegals,” according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Machacek allegedly pleaded with the agents, telling them he “is trying to turn his life around” since completing his probation for an undisclosed criminal conviction.

The migrants told agents they paid or owed smugglers between $8,000 to $14,000 to be brought into the United States and delivered to cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and San Bernardino, California.

Machacek and Lira are facing a charge of transportation of illegal aliens. Salcedo was arrested on a charge of harboring illegal aliens. Several of the migrants in the apartment also face a federal charge of attempted illegal entry after deportation. The juvenile was in custody but there is no record of him being charged.

Arraignment for the adult U.S. citizens is pending in San Diego.

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