Two southbound travellers were arrested hours apart at the South Surrey borders Thursday – one in connection with the rape of a child, and the other for assault.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say the incidents were unrelated.
In the first, a 20-year-old Lakewood man was detained at the Pacific Highway border in the early morning hours of May 3 after a name check revealed a traveller was wanted in Pierce County, Wash. for rape. After the warrant was confirmed, the traveller was taken to the Whatcom County Jail by Washington State Patrol pending extradition.
Later the same day, officers from the Puyallup Police Department took custody of a 31-year-old Edgewood woman, after a traveller at the Peace Arch border was detained in connection with emergency-room patients being exposed to Hepatitis C at Good Samaritan Hospital.
Area port director Kenneth L. Williams praised officers’ “vigilance in keeping our communities safe.”
“The work we do is vital to protecting our communities and those within them,” Williams said in a news release issued Friday afternoon. “I am proud of the work our officers do on a daily basis.”