A former Mexican soccer player was detained Sunday by Border Patrol agents in Otay Mesa, San Diego, when he tried to cross two undocumented migrants hidden in his car, according to US authorities.
Raúl Enríquez Arámbula, the 37-year-old former soccer star who scored the 2012 championship goal for the Xolos, the Tijuana first division team, was charged Monday in federal court in San Diego with human smuggling.
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Border agents said they apprehended Enriquez shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday when he tried to enter through an expressway for frequent travelers not considered high risk.
Upon arrival at the inspection point, he presented a B1/B2 business visa and a tourist visa, the San Diego Tribune reported.
Soccer player Raúl Enríquez Arámbula of Tijuana during a match against Atlas, on March 3, 2013 in Guadalajara, Jalisco. Cioran Casta±eda / LatinContent via Getty Images
But a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent shined a flashlight on the black SUV in which he was traveling and discovered that there was a blanket on the back seats.
So, he asked Enriquez to stop and show him what was under them.
Opening the door and lifting the blanket, the agent discovered two women hiding.
Neither of them had authorization to enter the United States.
Enriquez said he did not know who they were or how they got into the truck.
The women told Border Patrol they had paid an unknown person between $15,000 and $18,000 to help them enter the country, according to court documents.
And they assured that they spoke with the former soccer player, who told them that they were five minutes from crossing.
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Enriquez, originally from the Mexican state of Colima, is being held in federal custody.
He will have a hearing next week that is expected to determine whether he can be released into custody.
The San Diego Tribune tried to contact an attorney for Enriquez but did not immediately receive a response.
The soccer player played for the Xolos de Tijuana between 2007 and 2013. He helped the team climb from the second to the first division and win their first league title in 2012. He scored more than 81 goals with them.
He later played for Los Dorados de Sinaloa and Bravos de Ciudad Juárez.
He retired from professional soccer in 2018.