Spokesman: Killer Bees' apartment housed illegal immigrants

MISSION — An apartment reserved for members of the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees hockey team was apparently inhabited briefly by a group of illegal immigrants, a spokesman for the team said.

Team officials believed the apartment had been vacant since early last month when the Rio Grande Valley Dorados moved out after their Arena Football 2 season ended, said Rich Bocchini, a spokesman for the two teams, which are based at Hidalgo’s Dodge Arena.

But when the Bees’ bus driver visited the apartment Tuesday afternoon to help clean it in preparation for the hockey team’s arrival in October, he noticed blankets and pillows were strewn about and there were pots and pans in the kitchen, the spokesman said.

“It was really weird, but we thought maybe the trainer was just crashing out,” said Bocchini (boh-KEE’-nee).

The next day, the team’s assistant coach visited the apartment to install a water cooler and noticed several Mexican visas on the floor, one of which belonged to a teenage boy.

Team organizers picked up the visas and called police, who then went to the boy’s school and asked staff members to summon him to the principal’s office, Bocchini said. The teen’s relatives were asked to pick him up from the campus and were detained upon their arrival.

Officials with the Mission Police Department, the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were unaware of the apparent stash house.

Bocchini said it appeared that the unwanted visitors had a key to the apartment.

“I guess maybe it was a maintenance person or someone with the apartment” complex who gave the squatters a key, he said. “It’s a little wacky. … They had to know nobody would be there until October.”

The hockey players are still expected to move in next month — furniture is set to be moved in to the apartment next week.

____

Ana Ley covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4428.