{"id":108073,"date":"2024-12-05T00:03:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T00:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/3-soldiers-accused-of-smuggling-undocumented-immigrants\/"},"modified":"2024-12-05T00:03:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T00:03:39","slug":"3-soldiers-accused-of-smuggling-undocumented-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/3-soldiers-accused-of-smuggling-undocumented-immigrants\/","title":{"rendered":"3 soldiers accused of smuggling undocumented immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2024-12-04\/GETTYRF_050624_policelightsdaytime%20%281%29.jpg\" alt><figcaption>Jeremy Hogan\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>(NEW YORK) &#8212; Three Fort Cavazos soldiers have been accused of a conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants, according to the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas-based soldiers were caught on Nov. 27 allegedly driving three people &#8212; one Mexican national and two Guatemalan nationals &#8212; after a United States Border Patrol Agent initiated a vehicle stop in Presidio.<\/p>\n<p>An agent approached the vehicle, which then fled and &#8220;struck a second USBP vehicle, injuring an agent inside,&#8221; the DOJ said.<\/p>\n<p>Police eventually stopped the vehicle and apprehended the three undocumented immigrants, as well as one of the soldiers, identified as Emilio Mendoza Lopez.<\/p>\n<p>The car&#8217;s driver, who was allegedly Angel Palma, &#8220;fled on foot and was located the following day at a hotel in Odessa,&#8221; prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Justice has accused Mendoza Lopez and Palma of traveling to the Army base to Presidio &#8220;for the purpose of picking up and transporting undocumented noncitizens.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A third soldier, identified as Enrique Jauregui, has been accused of recruiting and facilitating the scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Text messages between the three soldiers, which were obtained through a search of Palma&#8217;s phone, allegedly revealed communications &#8220;indicating collaboration in the smuggling operation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mendoza Lopez is charged with one count &#8220;of bringing in and harboring aliens&#8221; and made his initial court appearance on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Palma and Jauregui are both charged with one count of &#8220;bringing in and harboring aliens&#8221; and one count of assaulting a federal agent. They were arrested Tuesday, and are expected to appear in court on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>It was not immediately clear if any of the soldiers had obtained attorneys.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, a spokesperson for the Army base said they &#8220;are aware of the arrest of three Fort Cavazos Soldiers&#8221; and said they would &#8220;continue to cooperate with all federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeremy Hogan\/Getty Images (NEW YORK) &#8212; Three Fort Cavazos soldiers have been accused of a conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants, according to the Department of Justice. The Texas-based soldiers were caught on Nov. 27 allegedly driving three people &#8212; one Mexican national and two Guatemalan nationals &#8212; after a United<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/3-soldiers-accused-of-smuggling-undocumented-immigrants\/\">Read More &rarr;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}