BANGOR, Maine — A Turkish national arrested on Memorial Day after he was found hiding in the woods off a farm road in the Aroostook County town of Blaine agreed Thursday in U.S. District Court to be held without bail until his case is concluded.
Tayfun Remzi Reis, 61, of Istanbul was charged with re-entry of a removed alien.
The search that ended in Reis’ arrest began about 2 p.m. May 30 when Agent Jason May of the U.S. Border Patrol learned that a person may have been dropped off on a field road on the Canadian side of the border about 30 minutes north of Houlton, according to a previously published report. About 5 p.m. the same day, 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 filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor said.
“I observed a beaten-down trail in the grass heading southwest from the location of the sensor,” May wrote in the affidavit. “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.