Two San Diego-based sailors have been arrested on suspicion that they helped to smuggle immigrants through a shore-patrol station near the San Ysidro border crossing, a Navy spokesman confirmed last night.
The two men will be arraigned this morning in U.S. District Court, said Scott Sutherland, deputy public affairs officer for Navy Region Southwest in San Diego.
Both men are 2nd-class petty officers, he said. One of them was a master-at-arms – the Navy's name for a military police officer – for Navy Region Southwest who stood guard at the shore-patrol station.
The second, a storekeeper with a helicopter squadron at North Island Naval Air Station, apparently was a friend of the other, Sutherland said.
Virginia Kice, a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, said customs agents had taken the men into custody, but she could not give other details.
The shore-patrol building sits astride the U.S-Mexico border, about 100 yards from the port of entry.
“It's basically set up to help keep an eye on sailors who are going down to Mexico,” Sutherland said.
Steve Liewer: (619) 498-6632; steve.liewer@uniontrib.com
