Two Rio Grande Valley men are behind bars after they allegedly used a shrimp boat to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Carlos Diaz-Meza and Ruben Gonzalez on immigrant smuggling charges Wednesday.
Court documents in their case show U.S. Coast Guard officials stopped and boarded a shrimp boat named the “Regio” in the Brownsville Ship Channel.
Authorities allegedly found two illegal immigrants from Mexico in a small compartment in the main cabin of the boat.
Court records show that the captain and another man on the boat were also identified as illegal immigrants.
A criminal complaint filed against Diaz-Meza shows he was previously deported from the United States in June 2009 and again in December 2009.
He came back into the United States through McAllen on January 4th.
Both Diaz-Meza and Gonzalez appeared before U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Felix Recio in Brownsville on Thursday.
Judge Recio denied bond for both of them.
It’s not clear if the shrimp boat had been used in previous smuggling attempts but ICE officials told Action 4 News the case remains open as a human smuggling investigation.
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