MCALLEN, Texas — Three U.S. Army soldiers from Fort hood have been arrested on federal human smuggling charges.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations arrested 20-year-old Brandon Troy Robbins and 21-year-old Christopher David Wix at Fort Hood in Killeen Texas Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a prepared statement. The charges against the soldiers come from a seven count indictment accusing them and two other of conspiracy to transport and harbor aliens and six counts of transporting aliens.
Two other persons named in the indictment include accused alien smuggler Arnoldo Garcia, 45 and 20-year-old Eric Alexander Rodriguez another active duty soldier who was arrested on September 11 at the Sarita checkpoint when he tried to get by the checkpoint in his pickup truck with two illegal aliens inside, court records obtained by Breitbart-Texas show.
At the time of his arrest, Rodriguez was wearing his Army uniform and even had a military jacket and a bed sheet laid over one of the aliens in an effort to conceal them
Rodriguez is accused of doing two other similar runs through the Sarita checkpoint while Robbins and Wix are charged with four other runs dating back to April. If convicted each of the four men faces 10 years in prison.
The case was investigated by HSI agents, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Command.
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