BP agents help deputies find suspects

Yuma County deputies, with the help of Border Patrol agents, arrested a woman who had crashed her car into a canal Wednesday morning and left the scene.

According to Capt. Eben Bratcher, spokesman for the Yuma County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to a single-vehicle accident on a dirt canal road near County 11th Street and Somerton Avenue shortly after midnight.

Deputies found the vehicle partially submerged in a canal, but the driver and a passenger had fled the scene on foot.

"They were driving along the canal road and didn't stop when it did, and went nose first into the canal," Bratcher said.

Bratcher said deputies asked the Border Patrol for help in locating the vehicle's occupants. Agents tracked both occupants for about an hour and and a half to a residence on Sunburst Avenue.

The driver of the vehicle was identified as Rosa Isela Rodriguez-Morales, 35, of San Luis Rio Colorado, Son. The male passenger was identified as Omar Cerna-Jimenez, 29, of Mexico.

Bratcher said Rodriguez-Morales was sought on two felony warrants out of Maricopa County on multiple counts of fraud, forgery and identity theft, and was arrested. It was also determined that both Rodriguez-Morales and Cerna-Jimenez were illegal aliens.

Rodriguez-Morales was booked into the Yuma County jail pending extradition to Maricopa County on the felony warrants. The male passenger was taken into custody by the Border Patrol.

"We are very grateful for the relationship we have with the Border Patrol and being able to call them for assistance in situations such as this," Bratcher said.