A former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer who was caught trying to smuggle a Mexican citizen into the United States has been sentenced to 18 months of home detention.
Carlos Curiel Quezada, a 10-year veteran of LAPD, and his girlfriend, 31-year-old Angelica Godinez, were arrested at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in south San Diego County on March 14, 2015.
That day, according to court documents, as the couple tried to cross the border, the couple presented their U.S. passports and told a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent they had nothing to declare.
The agent then referred Quezeda and Godina to a secondary inspection point. The vehicle passed through an X-ray machine, which detected something unusual in the rear cargo area.
At this point, CBP agents discovered a man hidden in the spare tire well of the couple's car, in the trunk. That man was Antanasio Perez-Avalos, 26, a Mexican citizen who had no legal ability to enter the U.S.
Quezada and Godinez were indicted by a federal grand jury in a one-count complaint on charges of "bringing in illegal aliens without presentation."
Quezada was on probation with LAPD at the time of his arrest for a suspected DUI charge from 2014.
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Few details about Quezada's relationship with the man in the trunk and with Godinez were revealed in court.
In the end, the former police officer was sentenced to home detention for the crime.
