Mike I'm curious about what happens when undocumented people are caught and there is suspicion that they are also either unknowingly or were coerced into smuggling contraband.
Like I'm picturing a scenario where a coyote leads people to a truck near the border and tells everyone they need to carry one of these burlap sacks over.
Is that a thing that happens with any frequency, and do those people usually face additional charges?
It does happen, as smugglers aren’t exceptionally caring or friendly people regarding the welfare of those they are smuggling. When it does happen, the signs of someone being coerced vs the signs of someone who is a smuggler, are evident. Normally, a group of regular illegals who happen to be carrying drugs, were often coerced into it, and are having to do it even after having paid the coyote. But generally speaking, drugs not mixed with regular illegals..at least not high dollar ones, those are moved in their own smaller groups that are harder to detect, where everyone is a smuggler. Here’s the crap part of it: Oftentimes, coyotes will abandon groups of regular people who have paid them good money. They lead these people into open areas north of the border where they know there are cameras or other surveillance that can see them, then abandon the groups to fend for themselves, often people with no survival skills at all. This is because a dope shipment of all smugglers is normally not far away by a few miles, and the coyote has been tasked to get LE assets in on the group of illegals (who have already been ripped off, pretty much), while smuggling slips by elsewhere; the coyote either slips back south, or joins the smuggling group wherever it is at (they all have throwaway cellphone comms). But to answer your question, those coerced into carrying drugs aren’t charged with it, as those people aren’t the criminal felon droids that are being sought. Those people are still treated as misdemeanor crossers. It solves nothing to further charge them with smuggling charges when that isn’t who they are. I remember one agent who, when apprehending a group of regular illegals, found the coyote and his roll of cash. Asking how much everyone had paid, he refunded the illegals their money there on the spot before arresting everyone, as now, that money becomes personal property again of those who were appended and they get it back upon deportation, and not RICO money of the smuggler that gets seized by the govt. The illegals with no other felony record get deported, the smuggler gets further felony charges.
The ones who have it the worst are females being smuggled, as they are generally expected by coyotes to pay for smuggling services in other ways; which includes even young girls; and if they refuse, many different forms of violence or even death are in the cards for them. Then there’s the kids who are booted across the border to fend for themselves, knowing they will be seen by us, as again a decoy. Had a 5 year old walking with her 3 year old sibling, along the border dirt road in the middle of nowhere at 0200, where they’d been placed across the 3 foot fence and left to fend for themselves, with a couple of bottles of water and a small backpack with canned food they couldn’t even open. And the family units, some of which are actual related family members, and others where its obvious that the kids have no idea who the “parents” are……those kids either having been voluntarily or forcefully made to act like kids of others. Its a mess in many ways. You see everything, including North Korean illegals who crossed at the Goldwater bombing range near Ajo, AZ, and were monitoring USAF aircraft on the bombing range as they practiced, complete with cameras, rangefinders, phones, food/water, binos, etc.
