BANGOR, Maine — A Turkish national was arrested Monday after he was found hiding in the woods off a farm road in the Aroostook County town of Blaine, according to an affidavit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Tayfun Remzi Reis, 61, of Istanbul was charged with re-entry of a removed alien.
He made his first court appearance Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Nivison, who ordered Reis be held without bail. A detention hearing to determine if Reis may be released on bail was set for June 9.
The search that ended in Reis’ arrest began about 2 p.m. Monday when Customs and Border Protection officers told Agent Jason May of the U.S. Border Patrol that an individual who was suspected of attempting to smuggle someone into the U.S. had been detained at the Houlton border crossing, the affidavit said.
The detainee told investigators he drove a man to a field road on the Canadian side of the border about 30 minutes north of Houlton and dropped him off. About 5 p.m., a sensor located about 300 yards from the border on a farm road in Blaine was activated.
May went to the area to investigate, the affidavit said.
“I observed a beaten down trail in the grass heading southwest from the location of the sensor,” May wrote. “After observing the trail, I followed the trail for approximately 25 feet into the woods where I encountered a subject who was attempting to conceal his presence. The subject was laying in a fetal position with a few branches covering his person.”
The man identified himself as an American citizen named David Danser and gave investigators a birth certificate issued from Pennsylvania and a New Jersey driver’s license, according to the affidavit. A check of his fingerprints revealed that Danser was actually Reis, who had been removed from New York City in 2005 when using the name Ertug Sefa Gunay.
Information about why Reis entered the U.S. through Maine was not included in court documents.
If convicted, Reis faces up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. After completing his sentence, Reis faces deportation.