Chula Vista

A high-speed chase early Monday involving U.S. Border Patrol officers and a Mexican immigrant trying to smuggle in illegal aliens ended when the fleeing car hit another vehicle, overturning it, in Chula Vista.

Aurelio Avila Damian, in his mid-20s, was arrested by Chula Vista police on suspicion of felony drunk driving. He also is being held by the Border Patrol in connection with felony alien smuggling, authorities said.

Avila, a temporary resident alien under the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s amnesty program, allegedly was trying to smuggle three illegal aliens, two men and one woman, over the border, said Michael Gregg, a border patrol spokesman.

After Border Patrol officers near Otay Mesa saw several people crouched in the back seat of Avila’s 1971 Pontiac Firebird, which was heading west on Interstate 905, they pulled the car over. As officers approached the car, Avila allegedly turned off his lights and sped away, Gregg said.

The chase turned north on Interstate 805, where Avila took the Orange Avenue exit in Chula Vista and hit a Honda Civic, which overturned. Avila’s car was going about 50 m.p.h. when it collided with the other car, police said.

The driver and passenger of the smaller car, Kenneth and Opal Chastain of Chula Vista, were bruised and shaken. Both were hospitalized and released.

Avila was treated for minor injuries and is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center. The three passengers in his car were not injured and are in the custody of the Border Patrol, authorities said.