A Russian mercenary was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol earlier this month after illegally entering the United States near Rome, Texas, according to reports.
ValleyCentral.com in Harlingen, Texas reports that on January 4, 2025, Timur Praliev was encountered and eventually arrested as he crossed the Rio Grande into Texas with two passports and $4,000. It was reported that.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by the department, Plaliev was asked about his nationality during the encounter and stated he was a citizen of Kazakhstan.
According to separate court documents, Praliev appeared in court last Tuesday with his attorney and entered a guilty plea to knowingly and illegally entering the United States at a location other than the one specified by immigration officials.
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The FBI is one of the agencies investigating a reported assault on a woman by a Border Patrol agent in the Tucson area. (Getty Images)
During the court hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda McColgan told the judge that Praliev also had a drone in his backpack when he entered the United States.
She added that when questioned, Praliev admitted to being a member of the Wagner Group.
The judge in charge of the case found Mr. Praliev guilty as charged and ordered a prison sentence and a $10 special assessment.
Wagner Group: What you need to know about the Russian mercenary group in Ukraine
A military academy officer salutes at the funeral of Dmitry Menshikov, a mercenary of the Russian private military company Wagner Group, who was killed during the military conflict in Ukraine, at the Alley of Heroes in a cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia, December 24. Candidates. 2022. Reuters/Igor Rusak (Reuters/Igor Rusak)
According to the station, Plaliev was asked if he had anything to say and replied, “NEET.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for more information on the case.
In 2023, the U.S. Treasury designated the Wagner Group as a serious transnational criminal organization, resulting in sanctions against the group and its sponsored networks across multiple continents.
The Wagner Group operates in multiple regions, including the Middle East, Africa, and Venezuela, and has long caused “endless problems for U.S. policymakers.”
Chronology of the conflict between the Wagner mercenaries that shocked Putin's Russia
In this distributed photo taken from a video and published by the Prigozhin news agency on Saturday, May 20, 2023, Evgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group military company, holds the Russian flag in front of soldiers in Bakhmut, Ukraine. He is holding up and talking. Prigozhin claims his forces captured the city of Bakhmut after the longest and bloodiest battle of the Russo-Ukrainian war, but Ukrainian defense officials deny this. Prigozhin said in a video posted on Telegram that the city came under full Russian control around noon on Saturday. (Prigogine Press Service via AP)
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the group has been considered a proxy group for the Russian state abroad since its inception in 2014. The group rose to prominence during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The organization currently has about 50,000 people in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 prisoners, according to U.S. officials.
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Mr. Wagner relies increasingly on recruiting from prisons, which often include trained veterans. U.S. intelligence has previously suggested that the Russian Defense Ministry has “reservations” about how Wagner will be recruited, but the group will continue to search for new soldiers in prisons.
FOX News' Peter Aitken contributed to this report.
