Dashboard smuggling

CALEXICO, Calif. -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers said they had to rip open a car's dashboard, after finding a man hidden inside.

It happened Saturday around 10 a.m. during a routine border inspection at the Calexico port of entry, customs officials said.

Officers said they discovered an undocumented 40-year-old Chinese man tucked inside the dash of a car driven by a U.S. citizen returning from Mexico.

The officers were prompted to search the vehicle, after what they said were inconsistencies in the driver's story during the inspection.

Paramedics were called in to remove the man from the dash. Customs officers said the driver was a 53-year-old man from Desert Hot Springs.

The driver was charged with alien smuggling and taken to Imperial County jail. His car was seized by the border patrol. Officers said the Chinese man was held by the border patrol and will used as a material witness in the case.

This is the latest in a series of smuggling incidents at the U.S.-Mexico border. In November 2006, Customs officers discovered an undocumented 17-year-old Chinese girl in a tight, specially constructed metal compartment under a truck. It measured 5-feet long, 1-foot wide and 1-foot high.

The girl was not moving or responding when she was first discovered. She underwent a medical examination, and was later discharged and returned to the port to be processed.

A 36-year-old man from Mexicali was driving that car, agents said. He was charged with alien smuggling.

In another incident, officers at the Calexico port of entry said they found three undocumented migrants, hidden in the seats of a U.S. citizen's vehicle.

Agents said they found the two men and a woman sewn into the seats of a van, driving by a 33-year-old U.S. citizen. That driver was also arrested and charged.