Big Bend Sector Border Patrol agents utilized surveillance technology to locate and apprehend a group of 18 migrants near Van Horn, Texas. The migrants all wore camouflage in an attempt to avoid apprehension.
Big Bend Sector Chief Patrol Agent Sean L. McGoffin tweeted images showing a group of 18 camo-wearing migrants being apprehended by agents from the Van Horn and Sierra Blanca stations. Agents captured images of the group by utilizing surveillance technology and called a CBP Air and Marine Operations (AMO) aircrew to track the migrants.
The aircrew located the group of 18 migrants and directed ground-based agents, including Horse Patrol Unit agents, to the location. The agents took the migrants into custody and arranged transportation to the station for processing.
Not far away, Van Horn Station agents teamed up with another AMO aircrew to locate and apprehend a group of suspected drug smugglers. The migrants carried bundles of drugs through the desert near Van Horn, Texas, McGoffin tweeted.
Mexican cartels frequently force migrants to carry drug-filled backpacks into the U.S. as a way to pay of their debt to the human smugglers.
The agents seized the drugs and transported the migrants to the station for processing, McGoffin reported.