Authorities say that a man suspected of being a human smuggler was caught in Texas with nearly 60 migrants packed into the back of a Penske box truck. The Texas Department of Public Safety said that on Wednesday, officers saw the migrants being put into the rental truck on the west side of El Paso.
There were 58 people, 49 men and 9 women, crammed into the truck. DPS said that they came from Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Officials told Fox News that the driver was a Mexican man named Marquez Oviel who was in the country illegally.
He was taken into custody and is now facing federal charges of human trafficking. The people were given to the border patrol.
The truck stop is the latest in a long line of times that Texas police have caught illegal immigrants.
During a traffic stop in Kinney County, Texas, last Friday, a deputy found four migrants in a car, including two girls ages 14 and 16. The Texas DPS put the video from the stop’s body camera on Twitter.
“There are two kids in the back,” an officer says after opening the back seat doors, video shows.
WATCH IT HERE:
Another child smuggling event was disrupted by @TxDPS in Kinney Co. The driver & passenger, of San Antonio, were arrested for smuggling 4 illegal immigrants – including 2 female juveniles (14 & 16 yoa). Great work by the Trooper! #OperationLoneStar pic.twitter.com/TaRtLlWykh
— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) March 30, 2023
In the middle of the 80-second video, a woman is put in handcuffs and told that she is being arrested for smuggling people.
In the clip, one suspect says to the officer, “You’re arresting the wrong people.”
When the officer asks the suspect, who is only known to be from San Antonio, who he should be arrested for, the suspect says, “The cartels.” They kill people, sell sex, and do all kinds of bad things.”
Video shows that the officer shoots back, “Those are the same people who sent you down here.”
Also, DPS planes found 30 migrants dressed in camouflage hiding in a cave in Culberson County, according to a statement from the governor’s office on Friday.
Since Gov. Greg Abbott started the controversial Operation Lone Star in March 2021 in response to a rise in illegal border crossings, migrants have been caught every day.
Since the start of the initiative, the office of Gov. Abbott says that more than 360,000 illegal immigrants have been caught, along with more than 26,000 criminal arrests and more than 24,000 felony charges.