SIERRA VISTA — Law enforcement officials apprehended 20 illegal immigrants after discovering a drop house in Douglas last week, according to representatives of three agencies on Tuesday.

On March 31, officers with the Department of Public Safety’s Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission, or GIITEM, and the U.S. Border Patrol uncovered a drop house on Thompkins Avenue after an attempted traffic stop of two vehicles.

Around 10 a.m., “DPS officers noticed two vehicles behaving in an odd manner,” said Officer Joy Craig of the Department of Public Safety. The DPS officers informed GIITEM members, who saw a green Pontiac Grand Am and Ford pickup truck leave the house on Thompkins Avenue. When they attempted to stop the vehicles, they fled.

Not wanting to risk a pursuit through a neighborhood, officers backed off and notified the Douglas Police Department, who came into contact with the vehicles shortly after. The driver of the Ford pickup abandoned his vehicle at International Avenue and A Avenue and managed to avoid officers by jumping the border fence into Mexico, said Marcus Gonzalez, public information officer for the Douglas Police Department.

The driver of the Pontiac, Juan Pedro Lopez-Varela, 26, of Nacozari, Mexico, was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents when he attempted to jump the border fence after abandoning his vehicle in the 2800 block of International Avenue, Gonzalez said. He was handed over to Douglas police and charged with unlawful flight from pursuing law enforcement and endangerment, he said.

Both vehicles were impounded and neither had been reported stolen, although one vehicle was using a stolen license plate, Gonzalez said.

Dove Crawford, public information officer for the U. S. Border Patrol Tucson District, said 20 illegal immigrants were found and processed at the house on Thompkins Avenue.