Imperial, California - El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents seized a clone vehicle and arrest eighteen illegal aliens Wednesday afternoon.

The incident occurred at approximately 5:10 p.m., when El Centro Border Patrol Station (ELS) received a call from a concerned citizen reporting that ten suspected illegal aliens had been delivered to a house located in Imperial, California. The caller also stated that the suspected aliens were delivered in a white truck with a business logo on the side door. ELS contacted the Sector Intelligence Unit (SIU) to relay this information. SIU recognized this address as a known stash house involved with an active investigation. The license plate of the truck was also recognized as the cloned Imperial Irrigation District truck involved in a prior smuggling event with agents from the Calexico Station on March 27, 2021.

At approximately 6:15 pm, agents knocked on the door and were greeted by six individuals which agents determined to be illegal aliens. Agents conducted a safety sweep of the residence and encountered twelve additional aliens in the residence for a total of eighteen illegal aliens.

During field interviews, some of the illegal aliens claimed that food supplies were being kept locked in a separate room where they had no access. All illegal aliens claimed to be missing their cellphones and stated that the person in charge of the house, described as an older male, had taken their cellphones away leaving them unable to communicate with family members.

All eighteen illegal aliens were adult males from Mexico.

The cloned IID vehicle was seized as per El Centro Sector guidelines.

All eighteen illegal aliens were arrested and transported to the El Centro Border Patrol Station for further processing and were ultimately expelled to Mexico under Title 42.

Though no smugglers were arrested on scene, the investigation regarding the human smugglers involved is ongoing.