Fast-acting Homeland Security Agent assists in arrest of 2 alleged criminals

ST. GEORGE – One man’s suspicious behavior in front of a Homeland Security Agent Monday led to the man’s arrest, along with the arrest of another man, for unlawful finance card possession, drug possession and a National Crime Information Center warrant out of Minnesota.

Homeland Security Agent Tim Chard was in the lobby of Bracken’s Auto Tech & Tire in St. George, dropping off his car for service, St. George Police Officer Joshua Wilson said in his probable cause statement supporting the arrests. A man in the lobby noticed the badge on Chard’s belt and abruptly walked out of the building in the middle of speaking with the clerk.

Hector Astudillo, booking photo posted Sept. 23, 2014 | Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s booking, St. George News
Hector Astudillo, booking photo posted Sept. 23, 2014 | Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s booking, St. George News

The clerk told Chard the man was there to pick up some personal items out of a car that had been impounded by Mohave County a few days prior. Chard contacted Mohave County and was informed the man had a felony warrant for his arrest out of Minnesota.

Officers set up surveillance at Bracken’s Auto in case the man came back to the shop. After about 20 minutes, the clerk called the man and told him to come get his things. A few minutes passed and the man arrived at the shop; at that point, he was detained by officers.

Officers also made contact with a second man who had dropped the first man off at the shop. The clerk at the shop provided officers with the second man’s supposed Puerto Rico driver’s license, which was listed as belonging to Franklin Riva Morales.

“I ran the driver’s license,” Wilson said in the statement, “and nothing came back that matched the driver’s license that I had in front of me.”

The man claiming to be Morales didn’t speak any English and claimed to only speak Spanish. After a short conversation, he provided officers with another name, Angelo Cuada. This name was found on some bank paperwork he had in his pocket.

“We were still uncertain of his true identity,” Wilson wrote in the statement, “and we decided to take him to the Homeland Security Office to have his finger prints ran for a positive ID.”

Officers left Bracken’s Auto and went to the location where the first man was being detained.

“At this time, we were with Mohave County Deputy Christensen,” Wilson said, “who stated that he booked these same two males into the Mesquite Jail because he couldn’t prove their identity when they were stopped for speeding.”

Angelo Cuadra, of Chile, booking photo posted Sept. 23, 2014 | Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s booking, St. George News
Angelo Cuadra, of Chile, booking photo posted Sept. 23, 2014 | Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s booking, St. George News

Christensen said he later discovered one of the men, named Hector Astudillo, had an NCIC warrant out of Minnesota.

“The name that Hector was using the entire time was Mario Astudillo,” Wilson said. “He was adamant that he was not Hector.”

Both men were detained and transported to the Homeland Security Office to be fingerprinted for proper identification. While officers were in the process of making the identifications, Wilson contacted the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota, and officers there pulled up Astudillo’s warrant.

Wilson verified that Astudillo had an identifying tattoo of a mother and child sitting on a throne that matched the description given to him by Anoka County.

At this time, the fingerprints that were taken came back as belonging to Hector Astudillo, alerting that he had a criminal history out of Minnesota.

The second man’s fingerprints came back as belonging to Angelo Cuadra, who entered the United States through an airport on Sept. 3, Wilson said.

At the time of his arrest, Cuadra was in possession of a false driver’s license out of Puerto Rico under the name of Franklin Rivas Morales. He also had two Visa debit cards – one bearing the name Franklin Rivas and the other Franklin Rivas Morales.

Cuadra was booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility. He was charged with one count of possession of a fraudulent government document and two counts of possession of a fraudulently obtained financial card, all third-degree felonies. His bail is set at $20,000.

At the time of his arrest, Hector Astudillo didn’t have a driver’s license or any ID. He was in possession of a Visa debit card that had the name Alejandro Fuentes on it. He also had the out-of-state warrant, and officers located marijuana in his suitcase.

Astudillo was charged with a third-degree felony for unlawful possession of a finance card; a class C misdemeanor for no valid driver’s license; two class A misdemeanors for possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia; and an out-of-state warrant. He was booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility, and his bail is set at $8,820.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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12 Comments

  • indy-vfr September 25, 2014 at 7:18 pm

    Come on, it’s obvious these two “immigrants” are here to turn their lives around! If only they would stop being harassed by Law Enforcement!

  • Markus September 25, 2014 at 8:39 pm

    They were probably promised to be taken care of by a couple of missionaries in Chile because only pretty girls from South America marry white guys with no skills so they can have a better life here.

  • TARRELL Hughes September 25, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    Typical Washington county justice system. Yes the guys are criminals. But the one was denied his constatutional right to affordable bail.
    At a maximum for two class three felonies ten thousand dollars and he gets a twenty.
    The corruption can’t be stopped
    The last time I was arrested in Washington county I posted ten thousand cash and the charges were dropped but I still have not received the ten thousand back.

    • sagemoon September 26, 2014 at 10:30 am

      Of course the bail is high, the guy is a run risk.

    • Duemas September 27, 2014 at 3:11 pm

      Duemas

  • Lance September 25, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    Just doing the crimes Americans wouldn’t do…..

  • TruthSeeker (original, returned) September 25, 2014 at 11:05 pm

    I don’t much care that some pretty criminal was caught by chance. It doesn’t make DHS look any better. Department of Homeland Security Agent? – are you kidding me. As if the DHS federalizing local police stations wasn’t enough. We don’t need DHS. It was created off of a fraudulent basis post 9/11 and is now the overarching agency that’s swallowed up other agencies. The DHS is essentially the Nazification of America. DHS can get the … out of this town, and nation for that matter. Oh i wonder if there is an authoritarian loving, state sucking socialist that is going to taddle on me for typing this. People that condone the dismantling of the Constitution and Bill of rights are complicit in the destruction of this once free and prosperous nation. What I’m doing is the peoples journalism. Censoring my speech is violating freedom of the press. If the NSA reads this then … and read the Constitution, not our posts. I’m tired of this big govt taking over. It won’t end until the people take it back.

    P. S. It would be appreciated if other truth seeker member changes his username slightly so as to not confuse the The STG News community.
    Ed. ellipses.

    • D & D September 26, 2014 at 1:15 pm

      Don’t hold back man tell, us what you REALLY think.

  • tinker toys September 26, 2014 at 1:48 am

    Good work Sgpd n MCSO.

  • Dana September 26, 2014 at 6:01 am

    “At this time, we were with Mohave County Deputy Christensen,” Wilson said, “who stated that he booked these same two males into the Mesquite Jail because he couldn’t prove their identity when they were stopped for speeding.”
    Good reporting , Kimberly. Must have been fun trying to unravel. Why were they out of Mesquite Jail?

  • B. Nickle September 26, 2014 at 5:54 pm

    Great job, MCSO has been working hard down there Mether Dam, I mean Beaver Dam.

  • TruthSeeker (original, returned) September 27, 2014 at 6:37 pm

    Meanwhile the flood of illegal immigrants will be pouring in since the govt has opened the border completely. It’s a plan to deAmericanize things and drive down wages and to gain a voting block that will vote socialistically take our rights. DHS has paid for the greyhound bus tickets. Border Patrol is an importation agency not immigration agency. There’s been whistle blowers and agents quitting over this… I’m all for people coming to America to better their lives, but there is a process and people with diseases and criminals are being let in from central and South America. That’s a big deal. Anyone can come in including gangsters from China and terrorists or Ebola, yet we get groped by the Theatrical Security Agency TSA every time we fly from city to city. Illegals fly with out a passport and by pass security. It’s a joke. It’s basic policy to secure a border. But we have no more Sovereignty. If the globalists are for it then it’s nothing good. Our govt officials had been down there advertising that now is the time to come up and congressman saying we are a brodeless community ha, so there are people riding on the top of trains to come up here. The media says it’s a humanitarian crisis and that it’s for the children which is bogus only 17% were minors and then the govt started defining minors up to age thirty. Give me a break. The border crisis was engineered like all the other collapses- global economic collapse and collapse of WTC. All the same.
    Anyways, Why the heck haven’t they been sent back? Because the govt has legalized illegal immigrants through a fiat process.

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