Border agents busted an alleged human smuggler with almost 60 migrants crammed in the back of a Penske truck, authorities said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety caught immigrants loading into the back of a worn out rental truck on the west side of El Paso on Wednesday, Texas DPS announced.
The driver, identified as Marquez Oviel, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was arrested and faces federal human smuggling charges, according to the Texas DPS.
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Law enforcement referred the 58 immigrants, which included 49 men and 9 women from Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala, to border patrol.
There were several other border busts, including a disrupted alleged child-smuggling incident and three dozen illegal immigrants wearing camouflage while hiding in a cave, according to authorities.
TEXAS DPS TROOPERS TO PATROL IN AUSTIN AMID CITY’S POLICE STAFFING CRISIS
During a traffic stop in Kinney County, Texas, a trooper found four illegal immigrants in their car, which included 14- and 16-year-old girls, according to the Texas DPS, which released a minute-long bodycam video on Twitter.
“There are two kids in the back,” a law enforcement agent is heard saying in bodycam video after opening the back seat doors.
Another person was found in the truck of the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
About halfway through the video, the officer tells a woman that she’s under arrest for human smuggling and fastens the cuffs around her wrists.
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One of the suspects told the officers, “You’re arresting the wrong people.”
The officer responded, “Who should be arrested?”
The suspect, who was only identified as a San Antonio resident, said, “The cartels. They’re killing people and sex trafficking and everything bad.”
“Those people are the same people that sent you down here,” the officer is heard telling the suspect.
Texas DPS Air Ops also located three dozen illegal immigrants camouflage hiding inside a cave in Culberson County, south of Van Horn in the Big Bend Sector.
Footage released by Texas DPS shows an agent pointing to where the immigrants were hiding. The immigrants blend in with the surrounding rocks and are only visible as the agent gets closer.
Busts continue on a daily basis since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021 in response to the rise illegal immigration.
In May 20221, he issued a disaster declaration that covers 48 counties, most of which are along or near the border, that directed DPS to “use available resources to enforce all applicable federal and state laws to prevent the criminal activity along the border, including criminal trespassing, smuggling and human trafficking….”
