BROWNSVILLE, Texas, March 17 (UPI) -- Authorities say a Fort Worth, Texas, man was charged after customs officials allegedly found his Mexican wife hiding in a speaker box in their car's back seat.

Customs officers "routinely find narcotics hidden in a vehicle but in this case, it was the driver's wife," Michael Freeman, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said to the San Antonio Express-News.


Christopher Sean Protho, 36, was charged with alien smuggling after his arrest Sunday at the Brownsville and Matamoros International Bridge, the Express-News reported Tuesday.

Protho's wife, 33, from Matamoros, didn't have immigration papers to enter the United States and is in federal custody pending deportation proceedings, Freeman told the newspaper.