A minivan driver will be sentenced July 15 after she pleaded guilty to transporting an undocumented mi¬grant for financial gain in Boulevard.
Ashley Alexandra Moreno, 23, faces up to five years in federal prison when she is sentenced in U.S. District Court in San Diego.
Three other counts of transporting unauthorized people were dismissed after she pleaded guilty to one count, according to court records.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent said he spotted Moreno stop near mile marker 32.5 on Old Highway 80 on Feb. 19. Two people ran across the road and got inside the blue minivan.
The agent said he noticed Moreno turn around and go to another area on Old Highway 80 and two people came out of the brush and got inside, according to court records.
He began to follow More¬no at 5 p.m. and observed she drove erratic, from side to side and over the painted lines. The agent requested info about the vehicle that was registered in Downey, Ca., with numerous crossings through the Calexico port of entry.
Another agent attempt¬ed to pull Moreno over, but Moreno began driving at a high rate of speed.
At 5:13 p.m., Moreno lost control and turned over on the 1000 block of Shasta Way in Boulevard. Agents called an ambulance and found one person unconscious and unresponsive. They were hospitalized.
Interviews with four people inside the minivan showed that all of them were not legally in the U.S.
They said they were going to pay between $7,000 to $8,000 to be smuggled into the U.S., court documents say.
Moreno admitted that she was going to be paid $500 for human smuggling. She told agents she panicked when she saw the Border Patrol vehicle as she said she understood the consequences of alien smuggling.
Moreno remains in the Metropolitan Correctional Center on $15,000 bail.
