A suspected human smuggler from South Texas is facing federal charges for allegedly shooting several times at U.S. Border Patrol agents who had tried to stop him in a brushy area near the border.
The incident occurred last week in a brushy area near the Texas border town of Progreso. According to a federal criminal complaint filed in Brownsville, Texas, Rafael Arriazola is facing a charge of assaulting a federal officer and a second charge of transporting illegal migrants.
This week, Arriazola appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Betancourt, who ordered that he be held without bond pending further hearings.
A group of migrants from Mexico crossed the Rio Grande and got lost in the brush, the complaint reviewed by Breitbart Texas revealed. After two days of trekking, one of the migrants found a trailer and knocked, asking for help. The woman inside contacted her son Arriazola, who offered to help the migrant get to a relative’s house in Donna. Federal agents claim that Arriazola got a handgun and then went with the migrant to look for the other migrants.
While searching in the brush, U.S. Border Patrol agents spotted and tried to apprehend the pair. The migrant did not resist. However, Arriazola yelled at authorities that he would send them to hell and began shooting toward one of the agents as he fled the scene.
After the shooting, the FBI responded to the scene. Following a short investigation, the agents identified Arriazola and arrested him on May 22 in Progreso. The subject is expected to remain in federal custody pending trial.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.