December 10, 2004 (Posted December 11)
Border Patrol Nabs Aggravated Felon with Marijuana in a Stolen Vehicle
Tucson, AZ -Yesterday, Border Patrol Agents assigned to the Douglas Station seized 186 pounds of marijuana in a sad attempt at smuggling made by an aggravated felon, who is also an illegal alien.
At approximately 4:18 p.m., an agent on patrol noticed two individuals removing portions of a local ranchers fence near milepost 355 on State Route 80. As the agent stopped to investigate, the two individuals fled the area southbound, towards Mexico. While the two individuals fled, a grey Mitsubishi 2 door convertible came out of the brush, where it had been hiding with its light off, and it too turned around and drove south towards Mexico at a high rate of speed. It appeared that the two individuals were creating a "gate" in the fence for the Mitsubishi to drive through.
Believing that the Mitsubishi had illegally driven through the International Boundary, and contained marijuana, the agent notified the Douglas Station and other agents in the area.
The agent followed the Mitsubishi's trail for about a mile, when he encountered the vehicle stationary with smoke coming from the engine. The driver had fled. It appeared as though the smuggler, in his rush to avoid the Border Patrol, had damaged the vehicle, and was unable to continue driving it.
Another agent in the area encountered and arrested an individual, believed to be the smuggler, just yards away from Mexico.
Inside the Mitsubishi, agents found bundles of marijuana in both the backseat and trunk, totaling 186 pounds. Records checks on the vehicle revealed that it had been reported stolen out of Douglas, Arizona. The marijuana was remanded to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the vehicle was turned over to the Cochise County Sheriff's Office for recovery services.
The suspect, Aguilar-Silva, Octavio, a 21 year-old Mexican Citizen, was taken to the Douglas Station and entered in to the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) and it was revealed that he had a criminal record. Aguilar had been convicted of Arson in 2001 by the Phoenix Police Department, was sentenced to four years incarceration, and was subsequently Removed/Deported from the United States in 2004. Aguilar is currently in federal custody pending prosecution for "Re-Entry of an Aggravated Felon".
For the Fiscal Year 2005, which began on October 1, 2004, agents in the Tucson Sector have already interdicted and seized 97,956 pounds of marijuana, worth over $78.3 million. This is a 7% increase over last year's 91,655 pounds for the same time period.
The Border Patrol is a division of the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, a new agency within the Department of Homeland Security, responsible for managing and securing our nation's borders.
~CBP~
