Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar was killed by a hit-and-run driver who fled to Mexico on Saturday, January 19. Mexican authorities have arrested a man who says he was the driver. He also may have been a coyote, or human smuggler.
Jesus Navarro Montes, 22, was arrested in the northern state of Sonora on Wednesday, said a spokesman for Mexico’s federal Attorney General’s office who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Navarro was transported to the city of Mexicali in Baja California after he told Mexican authorities he ran over Aguilar on Saturday in a Hummer, the official said.
After the killing, Navarro drove to Mexicali and gave the Hummer to several accomplices for safekeeping. He then took another car to Ciudad Obregon, where he was arrested, the official said.
Navarro was detained about four years ago for human trafficking, and there was a warrant for his arrest in Mexicali for the same charge.
Aguilar was trying to stop a suspected smuggler who had illegally entered the country from Mexico when he was hit, according to Agent Michael Bernacke, a spokesman for the agency’s Yuma sector.
The incident happened in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area about 20 miles west of Yuma at about 9 a.m. Saturday.
Luis Aguilar was 32 and leaves behind two children. No word on whether Mexico will extradite Montes to the US for trial.
Update: Yup, it looks like Navarro is a coyote.
Navarro had previously been detained and jailed for smuggling 10 undocumented migrants into the U.S., and there was a warrant for his arrest in Mexicali for human trafficking, the statement said.
Later Wednesday, the Baja California section of the Attorney General’s office said it found materials for manufacturing U.S. immigration documents after searching three Mexicali homes based on information from Navarro’s arrest. Prosecutors seized blank immigration documents, stamps with the U.S. government’s seal, border-crossing cards and temporary visas.
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