Alleged Smuggler Held as Car With 13 Passengers Crashes : Crime: Two people suffer minor injuries when auto hits freeway guardrail after police chase at up to 110 m.p.h.

A suspected smuggler of illegal immigrants was in federal custody Thursday after a high-speed chase across three counties that ended with the crash of a car that was jammed with 14 people, including four hidden in the trunk.

Two people suffered minor injuries Wednesday night when the overloaded 1978 automobile, driven by Jose Hernandez-Serrano, 28, of Pueblo, Mexico, smashed into a freeway guardrail in Santa Fe Springs, according to the California Highway Patrol and federal authorities.

Hernandez-Serrano was taken into federal custody on charges of felony transportation of illegal immigrants after he and 13 other people emerged from the wreck. The CHP said the passengers from Mexico included two children--2 and 3 years old--and 11 adults, four of whom were riding in the trunk.

Besides the federal smuggling charges, Hernandez-Serrano faces state felony charges of causing injuries while evading arrest and driving recklessly, CHP Sgt. John Sellers said.

The chase and crash occurred a week after a pickup rolled over near Barstow, killing 12 passengers who were illegal immigrants. The compact truck, equipped with a camper shell, was crammed with a driver and 19 people from Central America.

The chase involving the CHP and Hernandez-Serrano reached speeds up to 110 m.p.h., said Jim Hayes, assistant district director of anti-smuggling for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Hayes said that during the chase, the four immigrants hiding in the trunk of the car began pounding in terror on the inside of the vehicle in a futile effort to get the driver to stop.

“(Hernandez-Serrano), in order to serve the greed of these alien smugglers, was willing to initiate a high-speed chase with law enforcement officers with the risk of killing as many as 13 other people,” Hayes said.

He said the immigrants had crossed the border Monday and hid in a house in San Diego until Wednesday night, when smugglers crammed them into the old car for the trip to Los Angeles.

The chase began about 11 p.m., Sellers said, when the CHP received a call reporting reckless driving on Interstate 15 near Temecula in Riverside County.

When a CHP unit tried to stop Hernandez-Serrano, he sped up and headed west on California 91, authorities said. As the car sped through various CHP jurisdictions, Highway Patrol units dropped out and others took over the chase.

The car left California 91 and cut north on the Santa Ana Freeway in Orange County and crashed into a guardrail when it tried to head south on the San Gabriel River Freeway at Santa Fe Springs in Los Angeles County, the CHP said.

Two of the passengers were treated for minor injuries and were released from a local hospital before federal authorities arrived.

Most of the other immigrants are to be deported to Mexico, but two or three will be kept in federal custody to testify against Hernandez-Serrano, Hayes said.