‘Smuggling of persons’

A fugitive is now behind bars following a routine traffic stop made July 21 by Aledo Police Department Officer Matthew I. Shipman. 

The officer noticed a vehicle running a stop sign near the Lakes addition of the Parks of Aledo. Upon being pulled over, the driver presented identification that raised Shipman’s suspicions, according to Juan Saucedo, APD’s public information officer. Fingerprinting at the Parker County Jail found the driver was really Luis Ortega-Sanchez, a man with an arrest warrant out of Uvalde County.

Ortega-Sanchez was wanted for “Smuggling of Persons.” According to Texas Penal Code 20.05, the offense involves the transportation of an individual with the intent to conceal or flee from law enforcement, or encourages a person to enter or remain in the country illegally by harboring or shielding them from detection. Depending on certain factors, in Texas, the offense is punishable as a third-degree felony up to a first-degree felony. 

Ortega-Sanchez was booked into the Parker County Jail on July 21 and released July 30 into the custody of the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.

“Officer Shipman did a wonderful job in continuing to look for this guy's real identification,” said Saucedo. “So [the arrest] just serves as a reminder not to settle for the information we're given initially if we have any suspicion and to just make sure we do our job diligently.”