ATHOL, Idaho — According to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO), five Mexican nationals were detained on March 19, 2025, at Super 1 Foods in Athol. In a press release, the agency said the deputies were “proactively patrolling” in the area when they “observed a suspicious occupied vehicle in the parking lot.”
“While conducting a records check on the vehicle’s license plate, several subjects exited the vehicle and walked into the store,” stated the release. “The record check revealed the registered owner of the vehicle had a federal arrest warrant for previously being deported. As the deputies went to check the vehicle, the subjects who had originally walked into the store exited and upon seeing the deputies turned and ran back into the store. A deputy briefly pursued the subjects into the store and detained them.”
KCSO contacted U.S. Border Patrol officials who immediately responded to the location, detained all five men, and booked them into the Kootenai County Jail on federal immigration violations.
A KCSO source told Kootenai Journal the license plate on the wanted foreign national’s vehicle was issued in a southern Idaho county.
Upon review of the KSCO Booking Summary Report for March 20, 2025, six men were listed as “Border Patrol Hold” and two were listed as “Improper Entry by Alien.” At this time, it is unclear where the three additional foreign nationals were located when detained or their county of origin.
KCSO’s press release did not specify which of the eight foreign nationals booked into the jail were the five men detained in Athol.
*Edited to include photo of Emerson Espenosa-Aguilar.
