SAN DIEGO — At first glance, the white van seemed full of clean-cut Marines in uniform — not necessarily an unusual sight near the Border Patrol’s desert checkpoint along Interstate 8 in eastern San Diego County. But a plainclothes Border Patrol agent who had served in the Marine Corps wasn’t fooled — especially when the driver didn’t know the birthday of the Marine Corps — something every Marine is taught.
Another agent later noticed that passenger Jose Guadalupe Ceja Jr., a suspected smuggler, didn’t seem to understand English, and he and the driver both had nametags reading “Lopez.”
A closer look revealed 13 of the people were actually illegal Mexican immigrants and two were suspected U.S. smugglers trying to make it through the checkpoint in camouflage fatigues.
It was a shocking new tactic even for migrant smugglers known to go to great lengths — from stuffing illegal immigrants into the trunks of cars to transporting them in vehicles painted to look TV news trucks and Border Patrol vans — to dodge authorities patrolling the border.
Mexican smugglers often don that country’s military uniforms to try to get their illegal loads past authorities. In a 2006 incident that strained U.S.-Mexico relations, traffickers dressed as Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande and were seen helping suspected drug smugglers elude U.S. law enforcement during a chase.
But the use of Marine disguises appears to be one of the first cases of smugglers and immigrants posing as U.S. military.