Texas Department of Public Safety officers discovered illegal aliens hidden behind false walls in cargo trucks in two separate incidents in the past three weeks.
The first discovery occurred during a traffic stop on US-277 in Kinney County, west of San Antonio, in the early morning hours of August 30. DPS officers stopped the vehicle, disguised as a Lowe’s Home delivery truck, for an expired registration sticker.
“During the stop, the Trooper saw discrepancies with the driver’s travel itinerary and noticed the driver demonstrating strange behavior,” DPS reported. “After the driver consented to a vehicle search, Troopers went inside and located a false compartment in the truck’s cargo area. Troopers then used breaching tools to gain access to that compartment, and discovered 17 illegal immigrants crammed inside the three-foot-wide space with no air ventilation.”
Fourteen men and three women from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico were turned over to Border Patrol officials for processing. Several of the immigrants were treated for dehydration following their ordeal.
The driver of the truck, 28-year-old Cezanne Megel Patterson from Jackson, Mississippi, was arrested and charged with smuggling persons with the likelihood of serious bodily injury or death. He was taken to the Val Verde Processing Center.
Less than three weeks later, troopers discovered another cargo truck with a false wall that was being used to transport immigrants.
On September 16, DPS troopers stopped a Ford-250 pulling a cargo trailer on State Route 77 in Kenedy County, south of Corpus Christi. The driver, 29-year-old Anthony Johnson, told officers he was towing a limousine inside the trailer and was driving a friend’s vehicle. He freely consented to a search of the trailer, as seen in a video of the traffic stop.
During the search, troopers utilized a power tool to dismantle the rear wall of the trailer, revealing a hidden compartment with 16 male illegal aliens crammed inside. Troopers quickly extracted the illegal aliens from the trailer, expressing concern because of the sweltering conditions inside the hidden compartment. Some of the men were seen holding water bottles and showing signs of severe dehydration.
Following the discovery, Johnson was arrested and charged with 16 counts of smuggling persons, with the likelihood of serious bodily injury or death. The illegal aliens were later handed over to the U.S. Border Patrol for processing.