Truck driver accused of transporting immigrants hidden under flatbed

A tractor trailer towing an empty flatbed near Deming roused the suspicion of Border Patrol agents one night last month. Eventually, a search revealed 13 passengers, allegedly migrants who had entered the country without authorization, hidden inside the cab and even tucked beneath the flatbed, according to a federal criminal complaint.

The driver of the truck, Jarol Wilberto Arroyo-Cerin, 40, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to transport and move, and attempt to transport and move, immigrants unauthorized to be present in the United States by means of transportation and otherwise. If convicted, he may face 10 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison’s office said federal agents spotted the truck on June 25 on Interstate 10 and followed it because trucks hauling empty flatbeds are sometimes used to smuggle contraband or human beings. The truck allegedly exited in Deming and proceeded through town to N.M. 26, which connects Deming and Hatch, in a suspected effort to circumvent the Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 25.

After Border Patrol and Deming police stopped the truck, the complaint states the stowaways were found hiding in the cab of the truck, within a storage bin and lying on two-by-four boards of wood and a rubber mat underneath the flatbed, hidden from view by the frame. At least one of the passengers told agents they feared for their life as they lay beneath the flatbed, feet from the highway while the truck drove through the night.

The individuals allegedly told agents they had entered the country without required immigration documents. Eleven were from Mexico, one from Guatemala and the other from Ecuador, according to the complaint. One of the passengers was reportedly an unaccompanied minor.

The complaint alleges that Arroyo-Cerin, a Maryland resident, owned the truck and confessed to repeatedly transporting immigrants, saying he had collected these passengers in El Paso for transport to Albuquerque.

At a detention hearing Wednesday, federal District Judge Damian Martinez ordered Arroyo-Cerin to be held through trial, remarking on the unsafe manner in which he was transporting the passengers and thus deeming him to be a danger to the community as well as a flight risk, court records show. Arroyo-Cerin is appealing his detention.