Getting your player ready...
At first glance, the white van at a checkpoint along Interstate 8 near San Diego on March 14 seemed full of clean-cut Marines in uniform.
But a plainclothes Border Patrol agent who had served in the Marine Corps wasn’t fooled, especially when the driver didn’t know the birthday of the Marine Corps — something every Marine is taught.
It was a shocking new tactic even for migrant smugglers known to go to great lengths. But the brazenness raised a host of troubling questions: How did they get the uniforms? Were the uniforms only to trick immigration authorities or did the immigrants have more serious, military intentions? The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has teamed up with the Border Patrol to find out.
