Texas Truck Driver Released from Mexican Prison
The family of the Dallas truck driver imprisoned in Mexico arrived in El Paso, Thursday morning, hopeful Jabin Bogan would soon be returning to U.S. soil.
“We are so excited that today is the day,” Aletha Smith, Bogan’s mother said. “Thank you God this is finally going to be over. Praise the Lord.”
In an unexpected turn of events Thursday evening, Bogan was released from the VIlla Aldama Prison in Veracruz, Mex., after paying a nearly $2,000 fine, but was promptly detained once again, this time by Mexican Immigration.
Sources close to the case in Mexico tell border reporter Angela Kocherga that since the trucker crossed the bridge from El Paso to Juarez without a passport, he will now be detained.
Sources say it could now take up to a week until the truck driver is finally set free.
Bogan’s family members declined comment Thursday evening after hearing the news Bogan would be detained even longer.
Tanya Davis, Bogan’s common-law wife and mother of his young son, told ABC7 how she had not told their son about Bogan’s return.
“We are going to surprise him with his dad at school,” Davis said. “We haven’t told him anything.”
Bogan has been held in the maximum-security prison for seven months.
The truck driver was arrested by Mexican customs agents on April 17, after crossing the Bridge of the Americas, carrying a shipment of 268,000 rounds of rifle ammunition in his cargo.
Bogan says he got lost while en route to an ammo shop in Phoenix, transporting the ammunition from a manufactory in Tennessee.
When the trucker realized he was heading for the bridge crossing, he said it was too late to make a U-turn due to the afternoon’s heavy truck traffic.
Bogan was facing up to 30 years in prison for ammunition smuggling, but a judge believed Bogan’s account of what happened, and reduced the charge to a mere count of possession
The truck driver’s family paid a $2,000 fine to have Bogan released.
Sources in Mexico tell us Bogan is free from prison, but there is no indication as to when he will again be able to return to the U.S.
