U.S. Attorney’s Office Filed 79 Border-Related Cases This Week

SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 79 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California is the fourth-busiest federal district, largely due to a high volume of border-related crimes. This district, encompassing San Diego and Imperial counties, shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. It includes the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world’s busiest land border crossing, connecting San Diego (America’s eighth largest city) and Tijuana (Mexico’s second largest city).

In addition to reactive border-related crimes, the Southern District of California also prosecutes a significant number of proactive cases related to terrorism, organized crime, drugs, white-collar fraud, violent crime, cybercrime, human trafficking and national security. Recent developments in those and other significant areas of prosecution can be found here.

A sample of border-related arrests this week:

• On December 12, Sujey Velazquez and Sarah Joanne Cairo, U.S.  citizens, were arrested and charged with Importation of a Controlled Substance as they tried to cross the border through the pedestrian lanes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. According to a complaint, following an alert from a narcotics detection dog, Customs and Border Protection officers discovered the women had hidden fentanyl in body cavities.
• On December 18, Jacob Romero Ocampo, a U.S. citizen, was arrested and charged with Importation of a Controlled Substance. According to a complaint, Customs and Border Protection officers found 85 packages containing 38 pounds of methamphetamine and 22 pounds of fentanyl concealed in the firewall, doors, passenger floor, seats and rear bumper of Ocampo’s vehicle as he tried to cross into the U.S. at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
• On December 18, Guadalupe Maria Ceja, a U.S. citizen, was arrested and charged with Transportation of Illegal Aliens. According to a complaint, Ceja failed to yield when Border Patrol agents activated lights and siren. Her vehicle came to a stop near the Pine Valley Bridge on Interstate 8 after agents deployed a vehicle immobilization device. There were two undocumented immigrants in her vehicle.
• On December 18, Joel Bernardo Trejo-Cazares, a Mexican citizen, was arrested and charged with Attempted Entry after Deportation. According to a complaint, Trejo-Cazares attempted to enter the U.S. illegally in the trunk of a car at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. The defendant had been removed from the United States the day before.

Also recently, some defendants with criminal records were convicted by a jury or sentenced for border-related crimes such as illegally re-entering the U.S. after previous deportation. Here is one:

• On December 19, Ricardo Macario Vazquez, a Mexican national with six prior DUI convictions, two domestic violence convictions, and two prior convictions for illegal reentry, was sentenced in federal court to 21 months in custody for again entering the U.S. illegally. 

The immigration cases were referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO), Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with the support and assistance of state and local law enforcement partners.

Indictments and criminal complaints are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.