A U.S. Customs Service agent found illegal immigrants riding Monday in this fake U.S. Postal Service vehicle. (Bill Hess-Herald/Review) By BILL HESS

Herald/Review

HEREFORD -- An attempt to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States in what appeared to be a U.S. Postal Service vehicle was foiled Monday by a U.S. Customs Service agent.

About 1:30 p.m. near Andalusian Way and Highway 92, the Customs Service agent spotted the vehicle that had all the markings of a postal service truck.

However, thinking something was suspicious, the agent followed the truck. When the vehicle stopped and the agent approached, a large group of people ran from the vehicle, said Naco Station U.S. Border Patrol Supervisor Gabriel Martinez.

The Border Patrol arrived on the scene and agents were able to capture 17 men and women, all of whom voluntarily returned to Mexico, he said. The driver of the truck and a few others were not apprehended, Martinez added.

The vehicle looked like an in-service postal truck, with a United States Postal Service decal on a door and the Postal Service's blue and white eagle logo on the side. Red and blue stripes, typical of postal vehicles, were on the vehicle.

This isn't the first time smugglers have tried to disguise their transportation as a commercial or government vehicle. Within the last year, police have stopped a fake FedEx truck, and recently a Border Patrol agent spotted a fake construction vehicle.

Martinez said the agency was called recently about what appeared to be a postal truck loading up illegal immigrants in a desolate area along the border. He suspects the one involved Monday was the same truck.

The truck is a 1987 Chevrolet van with a Postal Service number of 6502399 on it. It had 112,000 miles recorded on its speedometer. It was impounded and taken to Auto Aid Towing's yard.

Temporary Arizona tags with an expiration date of Oct. 2, 2002, were on the truck, instead of U.S. government plates.

Some postal forms in the truck indicate it was part of the Flagstaff post office operation.

Postal officials said they are looking into the incident. While none could say if the truck in question was ever part of the postal service's fleet, one did say when a postal vehicle is sold as surplus, "it is depostalized," meaning the stripes, eagle logo and words indicating a vehicle was part of the United States Postal Service have to be removed by postal employees before being sold.

-- Anonymous, September 11, 2002

Answers

Interesting. Sue had mentioned something about junk postal vehicles being stolen. Stolen trash? LOL Now all we need to do is find the missing decals and plates that the management says are missing.

-- Anonymous, September 11, 2002