Human smuggling sweep at Camp Pendleton leads to arrest of 16 Marines
More than a dozen Marines allegedly tied to human smuggling were arrested at Camp Pendleton in an early morning sweep Thursday, officials announced. Others were rounded up for questioning on drug offenses.
Naval criminal investigators and officials from the Marine Corps’ 1st Marine Division swooped in early Thursday, netting 16 people during the morning’s battalion formation, officials said in a statement. The Marines were arrested on the unit’s parade deck, a division spokesman told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“It was a public display for the entire unit to see,” 1st Lt. Cameron Edinburgh, a 1st Marine Division spokesman, told the Union-Tribune.
The arrests at the installation in northern San Diego County were tied to a “previous human smuggling investigation,” according to the statement.
The arrested Marines were not named, but ranged in rank from private first class to corporal. All were attached to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Edinburgh told The Sacramento Bee.
Two Camp Pendleton Marines were arrested July 3 for picking up three unauthorized immigrants near Jacumba Hot Springs along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Union-Tribune reported.
The Marines arrested July 3 and identified by the Union-Tribune as Byron Darnell Law II and David Javier Salazar-Quintero were also attached to 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, according to the newspaper.
Another eight Marines were questioned for their alleged involvement in drug offenses, officials said in the statement.
Marines officials offered few additional details, but said none of the 24 Marines were assigned to Southwest border support.
This story was originally published July 25, 2019 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Human smuggling sweep at Camp Pendleton leads to arrest of 16 Marines."
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