posted September 29, 2007
A Mexican couple is facing federal charges in Chattanooga after their vehicle filled with seven Chinese aliens was stopped.
Venancio Perez-Martinez and Clara Rodriguez-Anaya were arrested after their red Dodge Durango was stopped on Sept. 20 on northbound I-75 in Bradley County for a traffic violation.
Officer Andy Radcliffe said he noticed several passengers in the car who appeared to be of Asian descent. He said Perez-Martinez claimed they were relatives of his wife and they were going to New York to visit other relatives.
The officer asked how they could be related "being the subjects are Asian and they are Hispanic."
But Ms. Rodriguez-Anaya said they were not her relatives, and she didn't know them. The officer said, despite the wife's statement, Perez-Martinez "remained adamant in his claim."
Authorities said they then learned that Perez-Martinez had been arrested on March 16, 1996, in Brookhaven, Miss., and charged with transporting 10 undocumented Mexican nationals to Houston.
Officials said Perez-Martinez finally admitted he was transporting the Chinese from Houston to New York for $400 per person. He said he had been contacted by what he believed to be either a Cuban or Puerto Rican man and asked if he would bring the Chinese to New York. He said he picked them up at a Houston hotel. He said he was given a phone number to call when he arrived in New York, and he would then be instructed where to take the Chinese.
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