the man is arrested while transporting ten undocumented immigrants in arizona on a fake border patrol vehicle
An American man dressed as a U.S. Border Patrol agent was arrested in Arizona for smuggling a group of undocumented migrants in a 'cloned' agency vehicle.
Alexander Celaya-Ortiz was taken into custody during the early hours of August 21 in Sells, Arizona.
Celaya-Ortiz was allegedly spotted driving a Chevrolet Tahoe bearing U.S. Customs and Border Protection markings in the town of Three Points along State Route 86.
He then passed a checkpoint without stopping, according to a United States District Court District of Arizona court document.
The white 2010 Tahoe model featured the green stripes and light bars commonly used by official CBP vehicles. The smugglers had also cloned the license plate and markings of a real CBP truck.
But agents - who had been tipped off that a cloned vehicle was being used to ferry migrants - became suspicious because the paint job was too clean for the 2010 model vehicle, the Washington Times reports.
Agents ran the vehicle's license plate and matched it to an agency vehicle that was later found parked at the Three Points Border Patrol Station.
Celaya-Ortiz was later seen driving in the vicinity of Sells as he headed south on Federal Route 19 and later turned back in direction of the checkpoint on State Route 86.
FAKE: Smugglers took a 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe and outfitted it with stickers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection
REAL: An official vehicle of the U.S. Border Patrol parked near United States-Mexico border fence at Friendship Park in San Ysidro, California
Border Patrol officers attempted to get Celaya-Ortiz to stop at the roadside inspection spot, but he allegedly refused to comply, causing them to set up a tire deflection device further down the road.
After the truck was brought to a complete stop, Celaya-Ortiz allegedly ran out of the vehicle and left the migrants behind.
He was found hours later with the assistance of a sniffer dog and an air support unit, officials said.
Authorities recovers a two-radio with a lapel microphone and a green shirt with a Border Patrol patch sewn on it.
Guatemalan migrant, Wilson Ponce-González, said he paid $12,000 to be smuggled from his native country to the Unites States, the court document showed.
While he was unaware that he was going to be transported in the cloned Border Patrol SUV, he claims the smugglers told him that 'he would be picked up in a special method that was very secure and would get him where he wanted to go in the United States.'
Orellana Ana-Elisa , also of Guatemala, claims she paid about $11,600 to be brought illegally to the United States.
She said she 'was told by the smugglers that she was going to get picked up in a method that would guarantee she would get to where she wanted to in the United States,' the court document indicated.
Mexican national Juan Aquino-Sánchez was smuggled from Altar, Sonora, where he said he reached a deal to pay $9,000 for his illegal passage into the United States.
According to the court record, Aquino-Sánchez 'was told he paid a special price because he would be picked up in a cloned Border Patrol ride' and that 'smugglers had previously attempted this method of using a cloned Border Patrol vehicle and were successful.'
Sandra Portillo, whose nationality was not released by the court, told investigators that she met a young man in Altar, Sonora, who promised to get her across the Mexico-United States border.
Portillo agreed to pay $3,500 when she arrived in Phoenix, Arizona, and was set to pay an additional $2,500, but did not know she would be traveling in the bogus Border Patrol vehicle.