A Mexican citizen was charged with felony human smuggling today after the Ford Econoline van he was driving on Interstate 70 on Sunday was discovered to have 13 suspected illegal immigrants aboard.
None of those onboard had identification, the Eagle County Sheriff’s Department said. The passengers included nine men, three women and a child who investigators said were to be dropped off at various locations between Colorado and Alabama.
The van’s driver, 24-year-old Alejandro Espinoza-Rodriguez, was also charged with having no proof of insurance, driving without a valid license and failure to yield right of way to an emergency vehicle.
The van was pulled over after it failed to move out of the left lane as an Eagle County Sheriff’s deputy was in the roadway to remove a boulder near Mile Marker 157.
Espinoza-Rodriguez is in the Eagle County Detention Facility under a $50,000 bond and has an Immigration Customs Enforcement hold. The 13 others are in ICE custody awaiting deportation to Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, according to the Eagle County Sheriff’s Department.
Some of them have been previously deported, the agency stated.
