12-04-2020 Two Foreign Nationals arrested

From the Office of the Chief of Police

TWO FOREIGN NATIONALS ARRESTED IN RUMFORD

December 4, 2020 - On Thursday afternoon, while on Operation Stonegarden duty, Rumford Police officers received a tip that an illegally-present, foreign national male was in Rumford operating a vehicle with Washington registration plates in the vicinity of Falmouth Street. Officers responded to the area to establish surveillance in an effort to corroborate the tip. A short time later, officers spotted the vehicle operating on Falmouth Street and followed it to Hannaford Supermarket parking lot. Officers observed two individuals exit the vehicle and approached them and engaged in conversation, learning that the men were foreign nationals from Mexico. After one of the men identified himself to officers as CARLOS ADRIAN QUINTERO RIVERA, the officers determined it was a fake identity and contacted U.S. Border Patrol in Rangeley for assistance.

Border Patrol agents arrived and determined that the man’s true identity was ADRIAN DE LA CRUZ-ALACRON, age 29 and that he was a Mexican National here illegally. Agents identified the second man as ALFREDO ESTEBAN VASQUEZ, age 26 and also determined he was a Mexican National and here in the US illegally. Agents arrested the men, charging both with being an alien illegally present in the United States. They were transported by Border Patrol Agents to their station in Rangeley for processing.

Operation Stonegarden (OPSG) is a program which supports enhanced cooperation and coordination among Customs and Border Protection (CBP), United States Border Patrol (USBP), and local, Tribal, territorial, state, and Federal law enforcement agencies. The OPSG Program funds investments in joint efforts to secure the United States borders along routes of ingress from international borders to include travel corridors in states bordering Mexico and Canada, as well as states and territories with international water borders. The Rumford Police Department has been a participating agency in Operation Stonegarden conducting focused patrol in Rumford for a number of years and has been credited to a number of drug trafficking, drug possession and illegal alien arrests in Rumford.

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