Guardsman indicted on smuggling charges The Border Patrol says he wore his uniform and told agents he had been ordered to take two illegal immigrants to Phoenix.
CLAUDINE LoMONACO Tucson Citizen
An Army National Guardsman has been indicted on charges that he tried to transport illegal immigrants while impersonating a U.S Army recruiter.
Prosecutors believe Adrian Adolfo Santacruz, 29, of Nogales was paid a total of $400 to transport two illegal immigrants and that he wore his National Guard uniform in the hope that he would be waved through a checkpoint.
U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested him Jan. 30 at a checkpoint in Amado after Santacruz stopped there, according to court documents. While searching the Chevrolet van he was driving, agents found two illegal immigrants.
Amado is about 40 miles south of Tucson on Arivaca Road just west of Interstate 19.
Santacruz told the agents he was an Army recruiter who had been ordered to transfer the two men to Phoenix, according to the federal indictment.
Santacruz was indicted March 2 in U.S. District Court in Tucson on three felony counts, two alleging transporting illegal immigrants for profit and one alleging he made false statements.
If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines. His arraignment is set for tomorrow before Magistrate Judge Charles R. Pyle.
Santacruz is in the Tucson-based B Battery, 2nd Battalion, 180th Field Artillery, said National Guard spokeswoman Eileen Bienz. He has been in the Guard since late 2003.