30 Migrants Found in Truck, 20 More in Texas Motel near Border

Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents found a group of nearly 30 migrants hiding in the sleeping compartment of a commercial tractor. Agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers also teamed up to apprehend more than 20 migrants being warehoused in motel rooms.

Laredo Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Carl E. Landrum tweeted images from a disrupted human smuggling attempt in South Texas. Texas DPS and Border Patrol agents stopped a commercial tractor. During the interview, the driver absconded from the truck.

Agents found nearly 30 migrants with no authorization to be in the United States hiding in the sleeping compartment of the tractor. The agents and troopers carried out a search and found the driver, arresting him for human smuggling.

Two days later, Chief Landrum tweeted images from a motel being used as a human smuggling stash house. Laredo Sector Intelligence agents teamed up with Texas DPS troopers to interdict the human smuggling attempt where more than 20 migrants were stashed in motel rooms.

Human smuggling is a lucrative business for cartels operating in Mexico and the United States. Reports from U.S. Customs and Border Protection reviewed by Breitbart Texas’ Randy Clark reveal that these cartels received nearly $1 billion in revenue in December from smuggled migrants.

In the Laredo Sector, migrants reported paying approximately $5,700 each to be smuggled into the U.S., the report states. During the first two months of Fiscal Year 2022, which began on October 1, Laredo Sector agents apprehended more than 15,000 migrants. This translates to more than $85 million in human smuggling fees paid to cartels.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not yet released the December apprehension numbers. Sources within CBP revealed to Breitbart that agents apprehended approximately 156,000 migrants along the nine southwest border sectors in December.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.