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Police: Man arrested for smuggling illegal immigrants through Summit County

Posted at 2:30 PM, Jan 21, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-21 21:45:35-05

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — Officials with Homeland Security Investigations arrested a man in Summit County Friday on suspicion of smuggling illegal aliens for money.

An affidavit of probable cause released in Third District Court in Summit County said that a task force officer with the HSI stopped a vehicle, that was driven by Rolando Gomez-Gomez, 33, for traffic violations.

During the traffic stop, the officer was presented false identification cards by Gomez-Gomez, the affidavit said.

Further investigation by the officer revealed Gomez-Gomez’s real name, and that he had been arrested “several times” for alien smuggling, according to investigators.

The officer asked Gomez-Gomez if he knew the occupants that were in the vehicle he was driving and he said he did not.

“Due to Rolando’s criminal history of alien smuggling and his statements about not knowing the other occupants, the TFO detained Rolando for further investigation into possible human smuggling,” the affidavit said.

During the investigation, the occupants of the vehicle allegedly admitted that they paid Gomez-Gomez an undisclosed amount of money for him to drive them to other states, including Nebraska and New Jersey.

After being interviewed by investigators, the affidavit said Gomez-Gomez admitted to taking multiple trips, driving immigrants throughout the United States for money.

Gomez-Gomez was booked into the Summit County jail under suspicion of one count of human smuggling, a third-degree felony, and one count of obstruction of justice, a class-A misdemeanor.