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Thursday, May 25, 2006

Charter boat used in human smuggling in South Texas?


Mack Daniel Bryant charged with using his charter boat to smuggle "undocumented immigrants" (read illegal trespassers in the US) from Port Isbel, Texas to Corpus Christi, Texas, a move that would get around Border Patrol checkpoints (I spent 6 years driving from Corpus to Houston and never ever saw a checkpoint) as reported here.

The indication of fees one might charge for such a trip is about $1500 a head:
Bryant’s ship hand, Baldemar Valdez, and three of the six undocumented immigrants remain in custody in Corpus Christi under a separate human smuggling case there.

Federal prosecutors in Brownsville also charged Luis Alberto Gutierrez-Zapien with a human smuggling based on Bryant’s case.

According to a criminal complaint, Gutierrez-Zapien paid Bryant’s manager Roger Moore $9,000 to smuggle the six immigrants from South Padre Island to Corpus Christi on Sunday.


It was probably more comfortable than being in a closed cargo container.

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