
A media release said 47-year-old Andres Reyes Granados of Mexico was arrested immediately after entering the country illegally.
Border Patrol agents from the Deming Horse Patrol Unit reportedly came across footprints headed north from the Mexico/U.S. International boundary.
They tracked the footprints about a mile north until they encountered seven people from Mexico.
Among the group was Reyes Granados, who was previously convicted for “Lewd or Lascivious Acts with a Child Under 14 Years of Age” in California.
Reyes Granados is being held pending criminal and removal proceedings.
Then later that afternoon, horse patrol agents from the Deming station also tracked footprints of three people west of the Columbus International Port of Entry and discovered two bundles of marijuana concealed in the desert brush.
Following the tracks, agents found three men sleeping between several yucca plants, with one man lying on top of a third bundle of marijuana.
The three men were identified as 25-year-old Luis Alfonso Paredes Grijalva, 21-year-old Miguel Angel Ochoa Espinoza and 19-year-old Jose Alfredo Perez-Duran – all from Mexico.
The load of marijuana weighed nearly 109 pounds and was valued at over $87,000.
The marijuana and drug smugglers were taken into custody and turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration in Las Cruces pending criminal prosecution.