Previously Deported Human Smuggler Arrested in Texas with Guns

REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

MCALLEN, Texas — A previously deported criminal alien with a conviction for human smuggling has been arrested in Texas with firearms. A traffic stop by Texas State Troopers near Rio Grande City resulted in agents with Homeland Security Investigations arresting and charging 34-year-old Jose Romero Garcia with being an illegal alien in possession of firearms, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed.

Earlier this week, troopers pulled over a Romero’s vehicle with defective tail lights. A Border Patrol agent that saw the traffic stop approached to check on the man’s immigration status.

The area around Rio Grande City, Texas, has become a drug trafficking and human smuggling hotbed in recent years. The area lacks a border fence like some of the cities just east of there making it very easy for cartel smugglers to get over the river and then drive a few yards to a major highway.

During the check, agents determined that Romero was a citizen of Mexico who was in the country illegally. The agents detained him and then got permission from his wife to search their property where they found two handguns, ammunition magazines and ammunition rounds.

Inside the house, authorities found a Browning 9mm handgun and a Colt .38 Special revolver. After seizing the weapons, reading him his Miranda rights and arresting Romero, authorities took him to be interviewed by HSI agents.

During that interview agents were able to confirm that in the past he had served a 10 month prison sentence for human smuggling and was deported once completed. Six days after his deportation, Romero was back in Texas.

The criminal alien said he knew that it was illegal for him to have firearms and claimed that he was holding them for a friend.

This week, Romero went before U.S. Magistrate Peter Ormsby who formally charged him and ordered that he be held without bond until his trial date.    

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

Armed Criminal Alien

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