On the day of the crash, Lt. Mike Corbin passes the Chevrolet Suburban that was packed with 19 illegal immigrants when it ran off the road, flew across a wash and rolled over. Two of the nine survivors — a man and a boy from El Salvador — identified the driver to authorities.

Jim Davis / Arizona Daily Star

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The suspected driver in a rollover crash that left nine migrants dead and 10 injured has been arrested on suspicion of transporting illegal immigrants.

The man, authorities say, had previously been arrested numerous times on smuggling charges, and survivors told investigators that he was smoking marijuana before getting behind the wheel of the sport utility vehicle.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Brian Guzman-Ochoa, 32, of Hermosillo, Sonora, after two survivors of the crash identified him as the driver of a Chevrolet Suburban that drifted off Arizona 79 south of Florence on Thursday, court records show. The SUV vaulted across a 25-foot wash, hitting the north bank of the wash and then flipping over.

Nine illegal immigrants — seven men and two women — were pronounced dead at the scene. Five of the injured remain hospitalized, with two in critical condition and three in stable condition, said Sandy Raynor, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona.

The investigation is still ongoing, Raynor said. That means more charges could be filed.

The driver in an April 7 rollover east of Tucson on Interstate 10 that left one illegal immigrant dead was charged with one count of "transporting illegal entrants for profit resulting in death," which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The current charge against Guzman-Ochoa carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both, Raynor said.

The two survivors who identified Guzman-Ochoa were from El Salvador, the documents show.

Efrain Eliseo-Ortiz, who is an adult, told agents that Guzman-Ochoa and another man, later identified as Josue Acosta-Ramirez, were in the front seat of the Suburban.

Acosta-Ramirez was one of the nine who died at the scene.

Another survivor, a boy from El Salvador not named because he is a juvenile, told agents that Guzman-Ochoa was the driver. Both witnesses said Guzman-Ochoa and Acosta-Ramirez were their guides across the border as well. They said the two were smoking marijuana while walking through the desert and before getting into the Suburban.

When interviewed by agents, Guzman-Ochoa told investigators that he was traveling with his son to Phoenix and was going to pay $1,800 to be smuggled. At first he told agents that he was in the right passenger seat and was holding the wheel at the request of the driver when the SUV went off the road.

But later he admitted to being the driver. He said the driver had asked to switch. He told agents that he didn't know how to drive and that he didn't remember what happened because he suffers from epileptic seizures.

He told Arizona Department of Public Safety officers at the scene of the accident that he was the driver and the occupants were his family members from Agua Prieta, Sonora.

Records show Guzman-Ochoa has been arrested at least three previous times on charges of transporting illegal immigrants and also has been apprehended numerous times by the Border Patrol for crossing the border illegally along with others.

The interviews with the survivors offer a glimpse into their journey from Central America to the United States.

Eliseo-Ortiz told agents he left El Salvador on July 5 and traveled to Chiapas, Mexico, where he stayed for two weeks in a smuggler's house. Then he traveled for two weeks in a van from Chiapas to Agua Prieta, Sonora, across the border from Douglas.

He spent three days at an unknown smuggler's residence in Agua Prieta before walking two days across the border and into the United States. On Aug. 7 at 4 a.m. — the day of the crash — a white Chevrolet Suburban picked him and the group up at a unknown location, he said.

A brown car arrived behind, it and men hopped out and told Guzman-Ochoa and Acosta-Ramirez to get in the white Suburban and drive it, Eliseo-Ortiz said.

So far, only one — a man from Mexico — of the nine who died in the crash has been positively identified, said Dr. Bruce Parks, chief medical examiner for Pima County.