(Texas Scorecard) – Sabinal Police Chief Jesus “Chuy” Reyes has outlined a new strategy human smugglers are using to avoid detection: using stolen license plates of similar vehicles.
The plates are often removed from residents’ cars that match vehicles used in smuggling efforts in the town of Sabinal, located in Uvalde County in South Texas, NewsNation reports. When a smuggler drives to the border from a major city such as Houston or Austin, locally swapped stolen license plates mitigate suspicions.
While multiple individuals from Sabinal have reported that their license plates were stolen, Chief Reyes alluded to the fact that the problem might be much bigger.
“We might still have vehicles here that people don’t know of,” he said. “They never check their license plates.”
According to Reyes, smugglers search for generic vehicles, such as white Ford trucks, and swap the license plates, so they will appear nearly identical and match if law enforcement were to run the plate.
Reyes explained, “They [smugglers] took one that was a city council member at the time—now he’s a mayor—and he got pulled over because the plates were reported stolen and found out those plates did not belong to him.”
“They belonged to a different truck,” he continued. “The ones that are taken, they’re pretty similar to their vehicles. If it’s a white Ford, they’ll try to match it to a white Ford, similar year and model.”
Border Correspondent Ali Bradley said smugglers rely on law enforcement turning a “blind eye” to the issue.
This comes as Texas is continuing its efforts to thwart human smuggling operations. For example, earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced that four individuals were sentenced for harboring illegal aliens in a stash house.
Abel Cavazos, 45, was sentenced to serve 63 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Darrel Palomares, 24, and Jesus Valdez, 23, were sentenced to 120 months in federal prison. Rodrigo Acevedo, 24, was sentenced to 87 months.
The court found that the aliens were held in inhumane conditions and ransoms were demanded. Housed on the second floor of a barn and lacking air conditioning, running water, and bathrooms, evidence was found that the illegal aliens had not been fed for four days.
Approximately 30 illegal aliens were held in the stash house, according to the press release. The armed smugglers often assaulted and intimidated victims. They also made death threats to those whose families did not pay a ransom.
“All four men will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future,” reads the press release.