The U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of California announced a significant drug interdiction this week as part of a broader sweep of border-related crime.
U.S. citizen Elvin Maravillas was arrested on February 4th after attempting to smuggle nearly 20 pounds of fentanyl through the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
The drugs were concealed in a non-factory compartment in the floor of Maravillas’s vehicle. This case is one of 111 border-related prosecutions filed this week, highlighting ongoing enforcement efforts.
Related: Immigrants Contributed Trillions More Than They Took in Benefits, Analysis Finds
Also on February 4th, marine officers with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted a vessel carrying undocumented migrants.
Mexican nationals Carlos Jhovanny Estrada Pérez and José Eduardo Corrado-Romo were arrested and charged with acting as the boat’s suspected captain and second captain. Three additional Mexican citizens on board (Josefina Mariano Nava, Ramón Rodríguez-Cuevas, and Arturo Sesma Rodríguez) were arrested and face charges for attempting to re-enter the U.S. after prior deportations.
In a separate incident near the Tecate Port of Entry, Border Patrol agents arrested Bulmaro Santiago-Pérez, a Mexican national found hiding in brush roughly half a mile north of the border. Records indicate he had been deported in April 2013 via Nogales, Arizona, and now faces charges for being a deported alien found in the United States.
These immigration-related cases are developed through collaboration among multiple federal agencies including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.S. Marshals Service, with support from state and local law enforcement.
