A Thai woman is being charged with re-entry after being deported after being found in a suitcase during a vehicle inspection at U.S.-Mexico border, the Associated Press reported.
A 56-year-old man from Phoenix, Arizona, whose name has not been released was driving a Honda SUV containing the suitcase 48-year-old Pornkamol Mongkolsermsak hid herself in, according to the AP.
The re-entry case has been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection said, according to CNN. Officials released a photo this week showing the woman tucked into a ball and laying inside the luggage in the back of a vehicle.
The Thai woman had been "denied admission, excluded, deported, and removed from the United States" through Los Angeles just 10 days earlier, according to the federal court documents, the Phoenix New-Times reported.
Mongkolsermsak was discovered when the vehicle was stopped at the border and Custom and Border Protection agents inspected the car and suitcase, finding the woman hidden under some clothes, the AP reported.
According to Customs and Border Protection spokesman Victor Brabble the smuggling attempt occurred on Dec. 30 in Nogales, Arizona, and it was not known whether Mongkolsermsak has a lawyer yet, the AP reported.
Other cases of secondary inspections have led to findings such as a 27-year-old woman who was arrested at Nogales on Dec. 22 after 15 pounds of methamphetamine was found in her car, and another on Dec. 27 when a 27-year-old Glendale woman was arrested for trying to smuggle 136 pounds of pot in the tires of her Nissan truck, according to CBS 5 News.
