Texas DPS Busts Human Smuggling Attempt at Border-City Airport

Texas Department of Public Safety officials interdicted an aviation-based human smuggling attempt at an airport in the border city of McAllen. The DPS special agent found 19 migrants onboard after his pilot ordered air traffic controllers to ground the aircraft.

Texas DPS officials in McAllen received a tip about three vehicles dropping off a group of suspected migrants at McCreery Aviation Company at the local airport. A DPS special agent and aircraft pilot working under Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border security mission ordered air traffic controllers to ground a Raytheron fixed-wing twin-engine aircraft.

A ramp check led to a search of the aircraft where the special agent found 19 migrants seated in the aircraft preparing to be flown to Houston.

DPS contacted Border Patrol agents who identified the 19 as illegal immigrants from Central America. The group included 12 males and seven females, officials stated.

The Texas DPS Criminal Investigations Division and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations are continuing the investigation into the failed human smuggling incident at the Texas airport.

Elsewhere in the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector, Texas DPS and National Guard soldiers working under Operation Lone Star assisted Border Patrol agents in apprehending another group of migrants.

Teamwork between the federal and state law enforcement agencies led to the apprehension of 14 migrants who attempted to hide in the brush.