A human smuggler being pursued by the Texas Department of Safety reportedly caused $150,000 in damages to 16 different private properties.
Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith posted on social media that “a human smuggler with 12 passengers drove a truck into a privately owned ranch off HWY 277 after being pursued by DPS” on the night of January 6.
“It was later discovered that the cartel operative continued driving cross country for 30 miles into numerous other ranches leaving a path of destruction and costly repairs,” Smith added in the post.
“Within this single smuggling episode, it is estimated that 16 property owners suffered damages to their property in the amount of $150,000.”
Smith detailed that eight of the 12 passengers have been apprehended but the driver has yet to be caught.
Pam Schott, one of the property owners, said the driver seemed to know where they were going on her property, adding that she believes it may have been due to either GPS coordinates or drone footage of her property, according to the Texas Scorecard.
Schott also noted that she has noticed a significant increase in the number of unlawful migrants crossing through her property over the past few years.
“We used to see maybe one or two, possibly three [illegal crossers] a year and now we’re just overran,” she told the Texas Scorecard.
“I couldn’t even tell you how many come through there and the trash that they leave behind. I just don’t understand how anybody thinks this is okay.”
For months, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported high numbers of encounters with unlawful migrants, with December breaking the record for the most encounters during a single month.
CBP reported more than 300,000 encounters with unlawful migrants at the southern border during the month, breaking the previous record of 269,735 encounters in September.
