A federal jury convicted a Texas trucker for trying to smuggle 124 migrants in a tractor-trailer past a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. As a defense, the driver claimed he did not know there were migrants in the vehicle.
During a recent two-day trial, a Laredo federal jury convicted David William McKeon, 67, on one count of conspiracy to transport undocumented migrants. He is expected to be sentenced later this year by U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo and faces up to 10 years in prison.
On April 20, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested McKeon at a checkpoint north of Laredo along I-35. According to information revealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, McKeon tried to convince the jury he was unaware the migrants were in the trailer. After two hours of deliberations, jurors decided to convict.
A criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors revealed that on April 19 close to midnight, McKeon met with a man at a Popeyes Chicken parking lot in Laredo and was offered several thousand dollars to transport a shipment from Laredo to San Antonio. The following day, he drove McKeon to the tractor near Highway 359 and told him to meet him at a nearby dirt road to pick up the sealed trailer and a false bill of lading.
Hours after the initial meeting, McKeon drove north toward San Antonio and stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint. During their initial inspection, McKeon told agents he was a U.S. citizen and provided the dummy manifest, which stated his destination was Austin, Texas.
During a physical search of the trailer’s seal, agents noticed unidentified noises and directed the driver to a secondary inspection. Border Patrol agents broke the seal and discovered 124 migrants.
Luisana Moreno is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas.
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