An American citizen trying to smuggle nearly a dozen people into the country was behind the wheel of the pickup truck involved in a fatal crash late last week that left three people dead along the U.S.-Mexico border, officials revealed.
Luis Alberto Virgen, a 21-year-old who had been living in Tijuana, is now expected to be arraigned this week on three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The crash happened Thursday in Boulevard, Calif., after a truck believed to be driven by Virgen led Border Patrol agents on a chase that reached speeds of up to 100 mph along the westbound lanes of Interstate 8, weaving in and out of traffic. Three of the 10 passengers onboard the truck died after being flung from it – and all but one were piled into the truck’s bed.
The Border Patrol told the Associated Press the passengers who survived the crash are from Mexico. Their exact identities as of Monday, however, are still unclear, and it is not known if they are from the migrant caravans traveling through Mexico. In recent weeks, the caravans have been passing through the region where the crash happened, on the other side of the border. – READ MORE