For the second time in two days, the Utah Highway Patrol has arrested a person for allegedly smuggling people believed to be in the country illegally.
Jose Wualber Lopez Hernandez, 24, was booked into the Beaver County Jail early Wednesday for investigation of human smuggling, forgery, not having a valid license and following another vehicle too closely.
The investigation began Tuesday, just before 11 p.m., when a Utah Highway Patrol trooper was contacted by a detective in California who stated "that a individual had reported that his girlfriend had possibly been taken. He told me that he didn't know by who or when," a police booking affidavit states. The woman's phone was pinging in Utah, the affidavit states.
The trooper spotted a Toyota Sienna on northbound I-15 near Beaver that was believed to be connected to the incident, the affidavit states. After following the vehicle and watching the driver perform an improper lane change, the Toyota was pulled over, the trooper states in the affidavit. The trooper then asked the driver, Hernandez, for his license.
"The license he provided to me was clearly false," the trooper states. "The picture and lettering were not correct on it."
The trooper also noted there were eight other people in the vehicle.
"When I asked for their identifications, none of them possessed a valid identification card from the United States. I again immediately recognized it as a possible human smuggling operation from my experience," the affidavit states.
After further questioning Hernandez, "he admitted that he was being paid $500 to transport the individuals to Denver for work. He told me that he was taking them to Denver where he would drop them off and return to California. He told me that the individuals were paying his cousin, and his cousin was paying him for the trip," according to the affidavit. "He told me that he had never received a driver's license in the United States."
The arrest comes nearly 24 hours after an 18-year-old man from Los Angeles was pulled over near Cedar City and arrested for investigation of human smuggling when eight people without valid passports were found in his vehicle. Pascual Jeremias Chan Paxtor told police he was being paid $1,000 to transport the group from California to Denver for work.
As of Wednesday, troopers say they are still investigating whether Paxtor and Hernandez were working together.