Border Patrol agents disrupt alleged crossing near West Kootenai

Two Seattle residents face charges in federal court after Border Patrol agents allegedly caught them helping six Mexican nationals cross the border in the West Kootenai area last week.

Leslie Patricia Rivera, 51, and Miguel Angel Medina, 61, both of Seattle, made their initial appearances in U.S. District Court on Jan. 21 on charges of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and transportation of illegal aliens. Neither Rivera nor Medina has entered a plea.

The six Mexicans, listed in court documents as Arlaeth Gomez-Calvel, Nereida Cynthia Jose-Santiago, Imelda Berenice Luis-Lopez, Daniel Ricardez-De La Rosa, Ezequiel Valencia-Vasquez and Libertad Vasquez-Cruz, were detained as witnesses, court documents said.

Border Patrol agents learned of the attempted border crossing about 5 a.m., Jan. 19, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana. At the time, they suspected a group numbering between six and nine planned to come down from Canada in the Great Basin area of the West Kootenai on foot.

According to the press release, agents stopped a “suspected vehicle” with Washington state license plates on a U.S. Forest Service road. Court documents placed Rivera in the driver’s seat while Medina sat in the front passenger side seat. The six Mexicans, “who indicated to the agent that they were in the country illegally,” were in the back seat, court documents said.

Following the Jan. 19 stop, agents took all eight occupants of the vehicle to the Border Patrol Station in Eureka for processing.

In an affidavit, Border Patrol Agent Seth Justesen wrote that the six border crossers were expected to testify that they arranged to meet up with Rivera and Medina after coming down from Canada. He requested the Mexican nationals be detained until the court proceedings wrapped up.

Medina was released on conditions after a Jan. 24 detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto. Rivera was held pending further proceedings, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The announcement of the failed border crossing sheds light on a vague warning issued by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office on social media over the weekend. The short post, uploaded to Facebook on Jan. 21, warned that activity along the border had increased and asked that residents stay alert and report suspicious activity. It offered no specifics.

The incident occurred nearly a year after another interrupted border crossing in the West Kootenai, one that led to a police chase involving multiple agencies that ended outside of Whitefish. In that case, a Washington, D.C., man arranged to pick up three men of various nationalities and immigration statuses — and all wanted by law enforcement in Canada — in Lincoln County.

The driver eventually was sentenced to time served. One of the men earned two years behind bars for illegal reentry to the U.S. and another was extradited to Canada on murder charges. The third man to cross the border, Naseem Ali Mohammed, fled after giving authorities a fake name and claiming U.S. citizenship.

According to the Vancouver Sun, law enforcement in Seattle picked Mohammed up in November on charges of robbery and possession of a stolen car. The Canadian news outlet described Mohammed as a “high profile” member of the Brother’s Keeper gang and a suspect in multiple gang-related homicides.