On the afternoon of August 6, the Blaine County Sheriff's Office took Carla Cardenas-Rodriguez of Phoenix, Arizona into custody. She was charged with not having a valid driver’s license and transporting, moving or attempting to transport illegal aliens.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Cardenas- Rodriguez was headed south on U.S. 270 when she committed traffic violations during a lane change while speeding. Deputies made a traffic stop and asked for her identification. They noticed multiple passengers in the back of the van, even sitting on the floor. Those passengers were also asked for identification, which they produced.
Cardenas-Rodriguez told the officers it was a family vacation, headed to a lake for camping. However, the officers noticed there was no camping gear in the vehicle and the driver didn’t know the name of the lake they were headed to. She also couldn’t identify her ‘cousins’ in van.
They radioed the sheriff's office for a portable fingerprint scanner. While waiting for the device and talking with and identifying the other occupants of the van, Deputy Todd Davis noticed a woman and a small child exit the van.
She was escorted back to a patrol vehicle, where she told officers her name and that the child, about two, was her son.
She said they had crossed the border and were running from the cartel. She didn’t know most of the people in the van, but said they were going to Georgia. She was afraid she would be assaulted and something might happen to her child as well. Arrangements were made for a safe place for them to stay.
Another passenger who had a valid Michigan license said he had gotten in the van at Phoenix. With permission from Cardenas-Rodriguez, the officers returned the various identification papers to the passengers and released the van to the passenger with the Michigan license.
Cardenas-Rodriguez was placed under arrest and taken to the Blaine County Jail. A telephone call to the Immigration and Naturalization Service issued a detainer on Cardenas-Rodriguez. The agent on the phone was able to identify Cardenas-Rodriguez by her booking photo and revealed her FBI number and actual name, Keyla Venegas Lopez of Chile. She also has multiple other aliases.
As the other woman and child were at the jail being fed and waiting for a safe location to open to house them, she told officers she and her son had been captured by the cartel when they were crossing the border about 10 days prior.
She said her mother-in-law had paid the cartel $10,000 each to let her and the child go. They then crossed the border again about five days later.
Cardenas-Rodriguez is charged with two counts of transporting or moving an illegal alien, a felony infraction and driving without a valid drivers’ license, a misdemeanor.
If convicted, Cardenas- Rodriguez could face not more than 10 years in prison and fines.