More than 50 illegals captured at downtown apartment

By Larry Blaskey
Douglas Dispatch
Published/Last Modified on Thursday, March 19, 2009 5:08 PM MDT


More than 50 illegal immigrants were captured and detained after the apartment they were using was discovered by Douglas Police.


Bruce Whetten/Douglas Dispatch photo Illegal immigrants are interviewed by Douglas Border patrol agents during a raid on an apartment in G Avenue. More than 50 were detained.

The apartment, located at on  G Avenue, was discovered as a result of a vehicle check at 7:50 a.m. Wednesday.

Douglas Police Officer Tomas Romero spotted a suspicious vehicle on 19th Street and A Avenue. After checking on the plates of the 1999 yellow Chevy 3/4 ton pickup, it was discovered to be registered to a fictitious address in Mesa.

The truck was later discovered in front of the G Avenue apartment. When Officer Romero began to check out the vehicle, someone came out of the front door of the apartment and the officer began to question him. At that point, people started running out of the back of the three bedroom, one bath  apartment.

The police picked up as many as they could and kept the others in the apartment. It is estimated that there may have been as many as 70 in the house, which had the utilities on and television running.

This was the largest raid of illegal immigrants in any single location in recent memory, said Markus Gonzalez of the Douglas Police Department.

The illegal immigrants that were caught were loaded onto a bus and taken away for questioning. The pickup was then impounded.

The incident is still under investigation by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Look in the weekend Douglas Dispatch for more details.

 

Copyright © 2013 Douglas Dispatch

Comments

    law Dawg wrote on Mar 25, 2009 8:25 PM:

    " Good job by the DPD Officer and shame on the dispatch for publishing his name and putting him or his family in harms way. We have a hard enough time doing our jobs and now we have to worry about our names and families being put into fear. We can take care of our fellow brothers/sisters come on dispatch and use common sense. There are many more houses in Douglas and especially in Pirtleville, this is the way people of Pirtleville support themselves, should be called Smuggleville. good job on the law enforcement communities as a joint effort. Keep the pressure on the smugglers. "

    its sad wrote on Mar 25, 2009 7:38 AM:

    " my wonder is how many they were gonna fit in one van. im glad to not hear about another roll-over accident on I-10 or something with a packed van. don't forget about last years scattered victims east of Benson of which many died as well as many landed in our Tucson ICU's draining our tax dollars "

    citizen wrote on Mar 23, 2009 5:18 PM:

    " For those people who don't understand what happened, the people in the apartment were not "living" there it was a stash house where the smugglers keep the illegal aliens until it is safe to move them to points further north, so those kids if any weren't going to school in the U.S., YET. "

    Doug Knox wrote on Mar 23, 2009 8:54 AM:

    " Wow... it amazes me that something like this would happen in Douglas. How can 70 people fit in one apartment? "

    douglas tax payer wrote on Mar 22, 2009 5:18 PM:

    " I wonder how many more houses or apts. in Douglas and surrounding areas are used for this purpose. And to think these people are only a few blocks from the International Border. "

    and what wrote on Mar 21, 2009 11:31 AM:

    " is it a problem how many are going to school in "AMERICA" we should actually go to school over there if you dont know they are way more educationally advanced then the dumd kids from here that go to school for free and dont appreciate it. "

    na wrote on Mar 21, 2009 2:33 AM:

    " I wonder how many of them will be back in the same house in a week since nothing will be done to them. While U.S. citizens sit in prison cells for small crimes, these NON-U.S. citizens get a slap on the wrist for stealing the tax payers money. It's time for the tax payers to start noticing where their money goes. "

    KILO wrote on Mar 20, 2009 11:53 PM:

    " THE BORDER PATROL WAS INVESTIGATING...THANKS FOR TIP....IDIOT! "

    I should be DPD PIO wrote on Mar 20, 2009 8:47 PM:

    " "This was the largest raid of illegal immigrants in any single location in recent memory, said Markus Gonzalez of the Douglas Police Department"

    Officer Gonzalez, when a fellow officer does good police work, by following up on a fictious plate and then single-handedly arrests over 50 illegals because someone in the house was dumb enough to go outside, that is not a raid.

    Also, a good PIO (and responsible newspaper) would not have posted the name of the officer who conducted this "raid." A smuggling organization just lost over 50 bodies and probably isn't too happy.

    Good job, Tommy, the BP is hiring. "

    Student wrote on Mar 20, 2009 12:01 PM:

    " I wonder how many of those kids were going to school here in America? "

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