Two Arrests Made After Agents Chase Car With 15 Illegal Aliens

A car crammed with 15 illegal aliens led Border Patrol officers on a high-speed chase on the San Diego Freeway early Friday that ended after the driver climbed into the back seat.

The driverless car--traveling 40 m.p.h.--ran up a freeway exit embankment and stopped, officials said.

Shortly after midnight, Border Patrol officers tried to stop a 1976 Ford just north of the San Clemente checkpoint, agent Charles Geer said. The car raced away at 90 m.p.h. going north, exiting and returning to the freeway twice, before making a final exit at Jamboree Road.

As the car exited at 40 m.p.h. on Jamboree, the driver apparently clambered into the back seat, Geer said. The car then ran off the road and up a steep embankment, where it stopped. No one was injured.

Border Patrol agents found nine men in the car and another six in the trunk. The driver, identified as Martin Hernandez Ermejo, 22, of Mexico, was arrested with another unidentified passenger.