VA State Police arrest human smuggler, 12 illegal aliens

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Last week, Virginia State Police pulled over a van being driven by Mexican national Pablo Eliosa Lara, a known human smuggler.

When police stopped Lara in Shenandoah County, he was transporting 12 illegal aliens from Arizona to New Jersey.

According to court documents, Lara has been caught many times before, in the U.S./Mexican border region.

Lara has been charged with knowingly transporting illegal immigrants for financial gain.

All of those being transported are now in federal custody.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Samuel G. Wilson sentenced Mexican national Oliver Sanchez Ortiz to 36 months in prison after pleading guilty to transporting illegal aliens.

Ortiz was also caught by Virginia State Police, traveling the same highway in October 2009. He was transporting ten illegal aliens to New York.

Prior to his October arrest, Ortiz had actually been deported four times.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement affidavit described the conditions observed in Ortiz’s vehicle: “The window was rolled down -- I don't even think it was rolled all the way down -- there was a smell of body odor that was sort of permeating from the car that [the trooper] could smell from a foot or two away from the window. They had traveled over 2,200 miles, all in that vehicle. The trooper found what he believed to be plastic bottles filled with urine in the vehicle.”

 

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