Read more: Local, Crime, Jose Mario Salinas, Gabriel Dominguez Benitez, Jovany Calderon Vargas, Jesus Alejandro Amay Arevalo, Nestor Paul Flores Perez, Fatal Accident, Rollover, Highway 281, Brooks County, Border Patrol, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, Ice, Pharr, Penitas, Hidalgo County, Rio Grande Valley, Texas, Mexico
The death of an illegal immigrant lead authorities to a stash house in Pharr and arrest five alleged human smugglers.
Authorities responded to the scene of a rollover accident on off U.S. Highway 281 three miles south of Brooks County line around 5:15 a.m. Tuesday.
Court records show that the body of an illegal immigrant who had been ejected from the four-door Toyota pickup truck.
Border Patrol agents later found a group of 10 illegal immigrants from the truck in the brush. Seven of them needed medical attention because of the accident.
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents learned the group had been housed at a home off Hiawatha Lane in Pharr.
ICE agents and Pharr police went to the home where they found 10 illegal immigrants inside.
Authorities arrested three alleged smugglers identified as Jovany Calderon-Vargas, Jesus Alejandro Amay-Arevalo and Nestor Paul Flores-Perez in Pharr.
Information obtained in Pharr, led investigators to arrest two more smugglers identified as Jose Mario Salinas and Gabriel Dominguez-Benitez at a home off Peñitas Avenue in Peñitas.
Court records show that Salinas and Dominguez-Benitez may have been the drivers of the truck that wrecked off Highway 281.
All five suspects appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby in McAllen on Thursday morning.
Court records identified all five accused smugglers as Mexican nationals.
Judge Ormsby denied bond for all five of them until a Wednesday afternoon hearing.
