Border Patrol agents from the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector rescued several immigrants trapped inside the hidden compartment of a cattle trailer.
On 19 April, RGV agents and a K-dog 9 responded to a suspected human trafficking attempt near Alton.
Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Patrolmen stopped one vehicle, a Dodge Pickup truck pulling a cattle trailer suspected of having a hidden compartment.
A K-9 dog alert led to the discovery and rescue of 13 trapped migrants under hay bales in a closed wooden compartment.
The unventilated compartment forced the migrants to sit with their knees against their chests and their heads tilted forward and down.
The driver tried to smuggle undocumented immigrants through the Falfurrias checkpoint.
This smuggling tactic put the lives of the migrants at greater risk due to the excessive heat in the compartment and the travel time of approximately one hour to the checkpoint.
DPS took custody of the driver and two other suspects to be charged with human trafficking. The migrants are citizens of Central America and were determined to be illegally present in the United States and prosecuted accordingly.
You may be interested in:
– They rescue migrants transported in train cars when they were about to die of cold
2021– They rescue more than 130 migrants who were inside a truck in El Paso in dangerous people smuggling operation
– Authorities in Mexico rescue 18 migrants and recovers two bodies in the Rio Grande