(Corpus Christi, TX)  —  A Galveston man will be sentenced in May for smuggling illegal immigrants in a flag-draped coffin that he claimed held a fallen Navy sailor.

Federal prosecutors say the Border Patrol stopped 33-year-old Zachary Blood in late October at the checkpoint near Falfurrias.  Agents found two Mexican natives hiding inside the coffin.  Both were in the country illegally, and told investigators they had paid a smuggler to take them to San Antonio.

Blood was later convicted of one count of alien smuggling.  He could get five-years and a six-figure fine.

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