Border Patrol says illegal crossers boarded plane
(AP) A pilot allegedly tried to fly three Mexicans in a private plane after they illegally entered the United States, the latest in a string of incidents that authorities said Tuesday suggests smugglers are using aircraft to transverse a remote California desert.
The pilot was apparently trying to avoid Border Patrol checkpoints on highways that run through California's Imperial Valley, said Ricardo Sandoval, an assistant special agent in charge of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Centro.
The Border Patrol said the Cessna was the fourth plane it seized in connection with smuggling migrants since last year in its El Centro sector, which stretches over 71 miles of the 1,954-mile border between the United States and Mexico. One suspected smuggler who was arrested earlier this month kept his Piper plane at the Brawley Municipal Airport.
Private planes have long been used to smuggle drugs but rarely people.
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