39 Rescued from Human Stash House near Border in Texas

A tip from a concerned citizen in Rio Bravo, Texas, led to the rescue of 39 migrants warehoused near the Rio Grande. None of the people packed into the small house had personal protection equipment to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Laredo South Station agents and deputies from the Webb County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office teamed up on September 30 after receiving information from a concerned citizen about a possible human smuggling stash house. The agents and deputies entered the residence and found 39 people being stashed in tight quarters with no PPE, according to information obtained from Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials.

Agents conducted a medical screening and criminal background investigation and discovered the 39 illegal immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala had all illegally crossed the border. Two had active warrants for Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol, officials reported. Sheriff’s deputies took custody of those two and placed them in the Webb County jail to await extradition. The remainder were processed under Title 42 Coronavirus protection protocols put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“None of the individuals were wearing any personal protective equipment (PPE),” Laredo Sector officials said in a written statement. “With a noted increase in COVID-19 infections among detainees, the smuggling and housing of large groups of individuals in stash houses and close quarters without PPE not only endangers the people being smuggled, but the safety of our Nation. Border Patrol agents of the Laredo Sector will continue to work with our local law enforcement partners to ensure the agency’s enduring mission priorities of combating transnational crime and securing the border.”

Rio Bravo is an area that is well known for human smuggling. The lack of a physical barrier, a shallow river crossing area, and the access to nearby houses operated by Mexican cartels for the purpose of drug and human smuggling made the small border town an ideal location for their criminal enterprise.

In November 2019, Breitbart News and Sirius XM Patriot 125 journalists and management visited the small town. Within minutes, chaos erupted as Border Patrol agents responded to an illegal border crossing. The Breitbart News video crew captured the action as the scene unfolded.

What had only moments earlier been a quiet neighborhood became a scene of chaos as Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) helicopter aircrew leaped into action following the illegal crossing of a few migrants. Agents captured at least one in the presence of the Breitbart News team while the complex Los Zetas-connected smuggling operation unfolded.

“This is territory that is controlled by Los Zetas,” Breitbart Border and Cartel Chronicles Projects Director Brandon Darby explained. “This is a neighborhood that is a heavy smuggling neighborhood for Los Zetas.”

“We saw Border Patrol looking for someone, and there are multiple things going on,” Darby said describing the chaos that quickly erupted in the neighborhood. “What’s going on is they use one person to come in and run to distract the authorities while they are doing something else.”

Darby explained that the cartel smugglers set up complex operations like this where they run a few people across the border to tie up and distract Border Patrol resources. He explained the decoys provide cover for “a drug load or maybe they’re trying to cross a load of people who have given them money — who have given them a significant amount of money or agreed to pay a significant amount of money.”

“So they send one of their own, one of the neighborhood guys who can run fast,” Darby continued. “They send him across and get Border Patrol to look somewhere else, and they can get their load across.”