A well-known human smuggler was stopped by Border Patrol agents over the weekend and he responded by pelting the law enforcement officials with rocks hitting one agent in the face.
Border Patrol officials say the suspect, Martel Valencia-Cortez, was allegedly smuggling 14 people through rocky terrain near Jacumba Hot Springs Sunday evening when the group was spotted.
As agents moved in, Valencia-Cortez ran to higher ground. Officials say he hurled a softball-sized rock at agents, striking one in the face.
The 14 people he was suspected of smuggling into the U.S. were arrested and interviewed. They identified Valencia-Cortez, who was released from prison in September after serving a term for human smuggling.
He was last spotted fleeing toward Mexico.
This is not Valencia-Cortez’s first brush with the law and he responded exactly as you would expect:
Valencia-Cortez has been known to carry a gun during smuggling attempts and has eluded arrest by resorting to violent and dangerous conduct, including reckless, wrong-way driving on freeways, threatening and brandishing weapons, assaulting peace officers and resisting arrest.
Valencia-Cortez was released from federal custody in September following a three-year prison sentence for alien smuggling.
The fugitive’s latest alleged violent actions toward law enforcement personnel “serve as a bleak reminder of the risk Border Patrol agents encounter in the service of their duties,” said Richard Barlow, chief agent with the agency’s San Diego Sector.
“I will not sit back and allow this blatant disregard for the value of human life,” Barlow said. “San Diego Sector will follow all leads and adjust our enforcement posture until (the suspect) is located and arrested. Justice will be served.”
As Minuteman Project volunteers well know, the border is an extremely dangerous place even for armed law enforcement officers.
