College football players smuggling incident: What did the ACU athletes do?

The 2024 college football season is barely three weeks old and some of the narratives have been the most entertaining around. But the case of Arizona Christian University surely takes the cake.

A report by Arizona Republic reporter Jason Wolf alleged how the NAIA program's football team have been running a human smuggling ring since 2022. It began with student-athletes Malakai Robert Samuelu and Meamoni “Junior” Faualo reportedly making a trip to the border in a rented car to smuggle in migrants.

Although the players were arrested and the migrants deported, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona did not prosecute them.

The two ACU players were not the only ones in on the scheme, though, with the report stating that several students had done the same thing in the past.

How the college football human smuggling ring operated

The Arizona Republic reported that border patrol arrested several college football players from ACU for human smuggling, but they were released without criminal charges brought against them.

According to a former college football player, they were allegedly recruited via Snapchat to drive the illegal migrants from the border to Metro Phoenix and paid $750 for every person that they smuggled.

A former quarterback at the program, Brady Martin, told Jason Wolf:

“I loved the state of Arizona. But I learned really quick what type of a school it was,” Martin said. “Because the kid that was touring me asked me if I wanted to go pick up Mexicans at the border and bring them back for $750 a pop.

"(Former backup QB) JJ (Mcelhenny) was my host. I laughed. I thought he was playing with me. And then they were like, ‘He’s not playing, though.’"

In the report, Wolf mentioned why most of the ACU football players were not charged with human smuggling.

"The federal law enforcement agency regularly declines to prosecute 20% to 25% of suspects arrested for human smuggling by Border Patrol due to inadequate probable cause or the inability of migrants to serve as material witnesses, according to government officials.

"And has declined to prosecute countless others, including Samuelu and Faualo, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, their lack of criminal history and “Tucson Sector Guidelines,” according to public records," Wolf wrote.

While college football has seen its fair share of strange stories, the alleged Arizona Christian University human smuggling ring is definitely one of the most intriguing ones.