ICE: Immigrant smuggler uses ambulance

MARFA A clever smuggling scheme in Presidio County came to an abrupt end March 5 with the arrest of a Presidio man who had been using an ambulance service to transport illegal immigrants past a Border Patrol checkpoint, a news release said. 

Lionel Armendariz-Cabezuela, 38, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following a six-month investigation by the Border Patrol and ICE.

Agents of the U.S. Border Patrol's Marfa Sector had received a report that a person had feigned an illness in order to be transported to the Big Bend Regional Medical Center in Alpine from Presidio. The trip includes passing through the Border Patrol Checkpoint south of Marfa, according to the release.

Armendariz has been charged with alien smuggling. Officers say someone in Mexico would contact a person in Ojinaga, Mexico, who would assist them in crossing the Rio Grande River where they would be met and taken to a location in Presidio. They would be coached in how to call for ambulance service and then fake an illness, either chest or abdominal pain. Reportedly the cost to the illegal alien for the effort was $3,700, the news release stated.

Ironically, Armendariz became ill while being interviewed by agents at their office in Presidio and had to be transported by the same ambulance service to the hospital, the news release said.

Armendariz has pleaded guilty to the charges the news release stated.

Public Affairs Officer Bill Brooks said the Border Patrol withheld information regarding this incident until the investigation was complete.