A U.S. citizen is now facing federal conspiracy charges, accused of speeding away from law enforcement at 140 mph in a small car filled with migrants near EL PASO, Texas.
The high-speed chase, which occurred on July 10, involved multiple Border Patrol vehicles, a helicopter from Air and Marine Operations, and all-terrain vehicles as they pursued the black Subaru into the New Mexico desert. The chase ended when the car ran out of fuel, and its occupants fled on foot.
The search led them to a Mexican woman with a small child sitting next to a wire fence, and an English-speaking man claiming to have been carjacked.
Upon encountering Border Patrol agents, the man, later identified as Michael Thomas Raines, claimed, “The Mexicans jumped me and stole my car,” as detailed in a criminal complaint recently filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.
The pursuit began around 6:20 a.m. after the Border Patrol’s Tactical Operations Center in Lordsburg, N.M., issued a lookout alert to field agents regarding a black Subaru that drove up to the U.S.-Mexico border and quickly drove back over a road known for migrant and drug smuggling.
Court documents show a Border Patrol agent spotted the Subaru and began making a U-turn when the driver of the vehicle accelerated. The agent called for backup after he lost sight of the fleeing vehicle.
The search led agents to NM Highway 9 and NM Highway 146 in Grant County, where the Subaru was left abandoned on the side of the road.
After the agents detained the woman, the child and Raines, they located two more Mexican nationals in the desert.
Court records show Raines stuck to the abduction story when questioned further by agents at the U.S. Border Patrol Station in Lordsburg. After agents told him witnesses saw him exiting the driver’s side door of the Subaru, he said it was because the passenger’s side door was blocked.
It wasn’t until he gave agents permission to inspect his cellphone that they allegedly found messages instructing him to “Just go straight to Albuquerque (N.M.),” and to pick up migrants for money, court records show.
Separately, agents found out the suspect has a criminal record that includes serving 13 years in prison for premeditated murder. The cellphone also allegedly had videos of Raines shooting firearms and offering guns for sale to others through a secure cell phone app, the complaint alleges.
Records show Raines eventually stated that he “knew the people (he picked up) were illegal” and that he needed money. When agents asked him how fast he was going in an attempt to elude them, Raines allegedly laughed and said he was driving at 140 miles per hour and that he didn’t “attempt” — that he actually “did” elude them and wouldn’t have been caught if the Subaru had not run out of gas.
He faces charges of conspiracy to bring in and harbor aliens. His detention hearing is set for July 17 before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory B. Wormuth in Las Cruces, N.M.
