ROMANO CEDILLOS

Two suspicious vehicles on Interstate 19 yesterday led Border Patrol agents to the South Side arrests of 28 illegal immigrants, a Border Patrol spokesman said.
Agents spotted a northbound Dodge Neon and a Chevrolet S-10 pickup about 1 p.m. three miles south of San Xavier Road south of Tucson, said Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame.

He would not say why the vehicles were considered suspicious. Agents followed the vehicles when they left the freeway at the San Xavier exit and turned north onto Sixth Avenue.

The vehicles went to Nati's Shuttle Service, near Sixth and Columbia Street. The 21 occupants of the vehicles were questioned by the agents and found to be in the country illegally, Adame said.

While agents were in the shuttle service's parking lot, two women sitting in separate Dodge Caravans were questioned, found to be illegal immigrants and arrested, Adame said.

While agents waited for the suspects to be taken to the Tucson Border Patrol station, a man drove a green Ford Ranger into the parking lot and was stopped, questioned and determined to be an illegal immigrant.

Adame said four more illegal immigrants were found under an overturned truck bed liner behind the shuttle service building.

The drivers of the Neon, S-10 pickup and Ranger are being charged with illegal entry, a charge assessed all operators of vehicles involving human smuggling, Adame said.

The five vehicles were impounded.

He could not say whether Nati's Shuttle Service is being investigated or if the suspects are connected.