Border Patrol arrests Yuma smuggling suspect after chase, 12 migrants flee

A Border Patrol stop in the Yuma Sector turned into a brief chase and a foot dispersal, with 12 undocumented migrants jumping from the vehicle before agents arrested the driver, William Jovanni Radillo-Verdin.

Border Patrol said Radillo-Verdin, a U.S. citizen, did not stop when agents tried to pull him over on suspicion of smuggling. After the people inside fled on foot, the vehicle kept moving briefly before coming to a stop, where agents took Radillo-Verdin into custody. The sector said he was being charged with smuggling undocumented migrants and that all 12 migrants were apprehended.

The case underscores how quickly a suspected smuggling run can spill onto Yuma County roads and into nearby neighborhoods or desert corridors. In a region where vehicle stops, highway chases and people running from stopped cars have become familiar parts of federal enforcement, even a short pursuit can force officers to split attention between a fleeing driver, scattered passengers and the safety of surrounding traffic.

Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector covers about 181,670 square miles of primarily desert terrain and patrols 126 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, from the Imperial Sand Dunes in California to the Yuma-Pima County line. The sector was established in December 1954, and CBP says its history is tied in part to increased illegal entries and agricultural-job growth in the Yuma area. Its area of responsibility includes Yuma, La Paz and Mojave counties in Arizona, plus parts of California and Nevada.

The Radillo-Verdin arrest fits a pattern that has played out repeatedly in the Yuma corridor. In May 2021, CBP said Yuma Sector agents stopped five U.S. citizens smuggling 12 migrants in four separate vehicle stops over a single weekend, including one near Dateland on Interstate 8. In May 2025, ICE and Border Patrol said they stopped another smuggling attempt in Yuma involving an unaccompanied child. Federal prosecutors also said in September 2024 that 18 members of a Yuma-based ring called La Mesa were indicted for smuggling or attempting to smuggle hundreds of undocumented noncitizens out of Yuma and Somerton, with links to Los Rusos.

Border Patrol said the sector has doubled in size since 2004, a sign of how central the Yuma area remains to enforcement operations. In the Sierra Pinta Mountains and along the wide desert stretches that border the county, the same mix of remote terrain, highways and local road access continues to make ground and vehicle smuggling routes a constant public-safety concern.