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HOUSTON: A Houston police officer has been terminated after he and his wife were arrested in south Texas on one count each of human smuggling.
Juan Carrillo, 51, and Rosa Lidia Carrillo, 42, of Cypress, were arrested Sunday during a stop by border patrol agents. The stop took place on Texas 85 in Big Wells, which is about 60 miles east of the border checkpoint at Eagle Pass, according to federal court documents.
Juan Carrillo’s termination was effective Sunday, a Houston Police Department spokeswoman said.
If convicted, both defendants face up to 10 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said by email.
The couple had initial appearances Monday in U.S. District Court in Del Rio before U.S. Magistrate Judge Collis White. Both were released on $10,000 unsecured bond and are scheduled to return Friday to the same courtroom.
U.S. Border Patrol agents who conducted the immigration stop Sunday on a 2008 Toyota Tundra driven by Juan Carrillo said they determined that Carrillo and his wife were U.S. citizens but their two passengers were in the country illegally, records state.
Juan Carrillo told the agents that his wife had previously wired $1,500 to an unknown smuggler to bring Nilzon Avalos Herrera into the United States. Carrillo said he had “knowingly and willingly” accompanied his wife to pick up Avalos and his friend, also an undocumented immigrant, at Eagle Pass, records state.
According to court documents, Juan Carrillo told agents he knew that both men were in the United States illegally and that he was transporting them further into the country. The two immigrants remained in federal custody Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
