Border Patrol stopped a semi truck around 12:25 a.m. on June 25, 2025, near Deming, New Mexico after noticing it hauling an empty flatbed and taking a strange route on State Road 26.
The stop: Officers found 13 people hiding in the trailer and cab compartments. The group included folks from Guatemala, Ecuador, and Mexico. One of those found was an unaccompanied minor.
- The truck driver, Jarol Wilberto Arroyo-Cerin, a 40-year-old from Maryland, was arrested at the scene.
- Border Patrol says Arroyo-Cerin told agents he had been paid to smuggle people into the U.S. and had done this before.
- He admitted to getting the job through someone he met at a truck stop and confessed to hiding people under the flatbed on more than one trip.
He now faces federal conspiracy charges for transporting and hiding unauthorized migrants and could get up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Arroyo-Cerin will stay in custody until trial. No date has been set for the court proceedings yet.