By Roxana Navarro
05 Sep 2024, 01:26 AM EDT
Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) agents working on Operation Lone Star discovered 17 undocumented immigrants being transported by a human smuggler. The migrants were packed into a small, hidden compartment of a well-known home improvement store truck, which was stopped during a traffic stop in Kinney County on the Texas border.
DPS said in a statement that on Aug. 30, a female officer conducted a traffic stop on a Lowe’s Home Improvement Store delivery truck on US-277 outside of Del Rio. The officer had her body camera active while speaking to the driver who was wearing a shirt with the store’s logo.
Crowded and airless
During the stop, the officer noticed discrepancies with the driver’s travel itinerary and noticed the driver was displaying strange behavior. After the driver agreed to have the vehicle searched, officers entered and located a false compartment in the truck’s cargo area.
At the back, there was a false wall covering a small compartment that looked like it was part of the truck. Agents then used demolition tools to access that compartment and discovered 17 undocumented immigrants who were packed inside the 3-foot-wide, unventilated space, DPS said.
The group of 17 people, including four women and 13 men, who are originally from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, were quickly removed from the false compartment one by one through a small hole, so they had to crawl on the floor of the truck to get out.
The driver was arrested
The migrants, who were trying to enter the U.S. illegally, were treated for dehydration. All 17 were then referred to the Border Patrol, where authorities will determine their fate.
The driver, Cezanne Megel Patterson, 28, of Jackson, Mississippi, was arrested and charged with human trafficking with likelihood of serious bodily injury or death.
Patterson was transported to the Val Verde Processing Center, the Texas Department of Public Safety shared.
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