Border Patrol agents say a couple coming up from Massachusetts were stopped close to the northern border in New Hampshire Monday morning after they picked up a friend who illegally crossed from Canada.
Now, Guatemala citizens Esdras Aaron Calel-Cumes, 29, and Luis Felipe Xiloj-Ambrocio, 31, are charged with immigration offenses. A Venezuelan woman, Nayelis Carolina Martinez-Arrias, has not yet been charged for her alleged role.
When they were picked up on Route 3 near Pittsburgh in northern New Hampshire, neither Calel-Cumes, Xiloj-Ambrocio, nor Martinez-Arrias was in the country legally, according to court records.
Agents were alerted by a remote camera system on Monday morning that a man was walking into New Hampshire from Canada, north of the legal point of entry, according to the federal complaint.
Agent Guthrie Peet drove out to investigate. The only car he spotted in the remote and undeveloped region was a red Acura with Massachusetts plates headed south. Peet stopped the car and found Xiloj-Ambrocio, the man from the surveillance photos, in the passenger seat, according to the complaint.
Under questioning, Peet soon learned none of the people in the car were U.S. citizens.
“Agent Peet asked if the individuals were present in the United States legally or illegally and Calel-Cumes shrugged and stated he didn’t know if he wanted to answer that,” the complaint states.
Though Calel-Cumes did not want to discuss his immigration status, he was able to give Peet a valid Massachusetts drivers license during the stop.
Calel-Cumes later told Peet he and his girlfriend, Martinez-Arrias, drove up to the border that morning in order to pick up Xiloj-Ambrocio.
Calel-Cumes is charged with one count of transporting an illegal alien, and Xiloj-Ambrocio is charged with one count of illegal entry. While Martinez-Arrias is in the country illegally, she is free with a pending immigration court date set for February.
The charge of transportation of an illegal alien carries a sentence of up to 5 years incarceration, up to 3 years of supervised release, and a fine up to $250,000. The charge of illegal entry carries a sentence of up to 6 months incarceration, up to one year of supervised release.
