Rancho Bernardo
U.S. Border Patrol agents intercepted a tractor-trailer rig late Tuesday packed with 105 illegal aliens on Interstate 15 near Rancho Bernardo, authorities said.
Agents stopped the truck about 11:30 p.m. and arrested the driver, Frank Ellinger, 45, of National City on suspicion of smuggling aliens, patrol spokesman Michael Gregg said.
The truck was apparently headed toward the Los Angeles area.
The stop is part of a continuing investigation by agents of the San Diego sector that began last November and has led to the arrests of five people.
The group of aliens consisted of 102 Mexican nationals, three Jamaicans, and one each from Guatemala and Honduras. Included in the group were 30 women and children.
No injuries were reported, Gregg said.
“They were all in pretty good shape,” he said. “They were not in the back of the trailer for very long before it was stopped. It could have been a different story if it had been in the daytime.”
Most of the aliens were deported, but several were held as material witnesses, Gregg said.
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