‘DEAD GUY, NAVY GUY’

Man Admits Trying to Smuggle People in U.S. Flag-Draped Coffin

Zachary Taylor Blood insisted he was carrying a dead Navy veteran in the casket.

When Zachary Taylor Blood was stopped by Border Patrol officials near a Texas checkpoint in October, he was asked what was inside the flag-draped coffin he was carrying in the back of his Dodge Caravan. “Dead guy, Navy guy,” he responded, according to court documents reported by NBC News. However, when the suspicious agents opened up the coffin, they found two men inside who were very much alive. Court papers allege that the two Mexican nationals told officials they had paid smugglers to bring them into the U.S. and Blood had instructed them to get into the coffin. Blood then allegedly attached a U.S. flag to the casket with packing tape in an ill-fated attempt to deceive authorities. Blood pleaded guilty to one count that relates to transporting people in the country illegally, according to NBC News, but he’s not accused of bringing the men into the U.S.