A Russian mercenary was arrested by US Border Patrol agents earlier this month after he illegally entered the US near the country. Rome, Texasaccording to reports.
ValleyCentral.com in Harlingen, Texas, reported that agents encountered Timur Bralyaev after he crossed the Rio Grande into Texas, carrying two passports and $4,000, on January 4, 2025. He was eventually arrested.
A criminal complaint obtained by the station shows that Bralyaev was questioned about his nationality during the encounter and stated that he was a Kazakh citizen.
Another court document shows that Bralyaev appeared in court last Tuesday with a lawyer and pleaded guilty to knowingly and illegally entering the United States at a location other than specified by immigration officers.
The FBI is among the agencies investigating the reported assault of a female Border Patrol agent in the Tucson Sector. (Getty Images)
During the court hearing, Assistant US Attorney Amanda McColgan reportedly told the judge that Bralyaev also had a drone in his backpack when he was riding it. Crossed into the United States
She added that when interrogated, Bralyaev admitted that he was a member of the Wagner Group.
The judge presiding over the case ruled that Bralyaev was guilty of the charges and ordered a prison sentence plus a special assessment of $10.
Wagner Group: What to know about the Russian mercenary group in Ukraine
Military academy students salute during 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 cemetery in Saint Petersburg, Russia on December 24. 2022. Reuters/Igor Rusak (Reuters/Igor Rusak)
When Bralyaev was asked if he had anything to say, he replied: “Nate,” the station reported.
US Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for more information on this matter.
In 2023, the US Treasury designated the Wagner Group as a major transnational criminal organization, resulting in sanctions on the group and its supporting network across multiple continents.
The Wagner Group has operated in several regions, including the Middle East, Africa and Venezuela, and has long caused “endless problems for US policymakers.”
Timeline of the confrontation by the Wagner mercenary group that shook Putin's Russia
In this handout photo taken from video and published by Prigozhin's press service on Saturday, May 20, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Military Group Corporation, speaks holding the Russian national flag in front of his soldiers in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Prigozhin claims that his forces took control of the city of Bakhmut after the longest and bloodiest battle in the Russian-Ukrainian war, but Ukrainian defense officials denied this. In a video posted on Telegram, Prigozhin said the city came under full Russian control around midday on Saturday. (Prigozhin Press Service via AP)
Since its creation in 2014, the group has been considered a proxy group for the Russian state abroad, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The group emerged over a period of time Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The group currently numbers nearly 50,000 individuals deployed in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts, according to U.S. officials.
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Wagner increasingly It relied on recruitment from prisonswhich often includes trained military veterans. US intelligence had previously indicated that the Russian Defense Ministry had “reservations” about Wagner's recruitment methods, but the group would continue to find new forces in prisons.
Fox News' Peter Aitken contributed to this report.
