HARLINGEN, Texas — U.S. Border Patrol agents seized a vehicle that had been cloned by human smugglers to look like a service truck.
Earlier this week, U.S Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector spotted a group of four illegal immigrants get off a white truck with yellow markings. The truck was made to look like a service vehicle, information provided by the agency to Breitbart Texas revealed.
When agents tried to arrest the group around the vehicle, the four illegal immigrants and the driver attempted to run away. Authorities arrested the four illegal immigrants, but were not able to catch the driver of the vehicle. Authorities were able to determine that the vehicle was not owned by any construction, railroad, or service company.
Breitbart Texas reported in December 2015 that human smugglers had been caught with a load of illegal immigrants in a SUV that had been made up to look like a Border Patrol vehicle, Border Patrol Agent Hector Garza told Breitbart Texas while acting in his capacity as president of the National Border Patrol Council, Local 2455. After stopping the suspicious vehicle the driver was arrested and the agent found 12 illegal aliens stuffed inside the Chevy Tahoe that had been painted with Border Patrol vehicle markings.
Breitbart Texas has been reporting on how despite the assurances made by the federal government, the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border through cartel controlled territories continues to increase to levels higher than those in previous years. One of those key statistics deals with the numbers of illegal immigrant families and unaccompanied minors continuously crossing the border from Mexico; those numbers have risen sharply in the federal Fiscal Year 2016. The apprehension of families has increased by 95 percent over FY 2015 numbers to 77,674 according to a report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The number of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) crossing the border hit a near record total of 59,692.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project and you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.