Trending: Smugglers Use Migrants to Drive Other Migrants from U.S. Border

Texas Department of Public Safety officials report an increasing number of cases where human smugglers use migrants to drive their transport vehicles. The move is seen as an increased danger to those being smuggled and innocent drivers on Texas highways.

Texas DPS spokesman Lt. Christopher Olivarez told Breitbart Texas that troopers are seeing more and more incidents of human smuggling where the driver is a foreign national who is also illegally in the United States. The trend increases the danger to Texans on roadways in addition to the migrants being smuggled.

“These drivers appear to be less experienced and are placing themselves in dangerous situations, including high-speed pursuits,” Olivarez told Breitbart. “Add to that, their unfamiliarity with the local roadways and traffic rules and customs.”

Lt. Olivarez tweeted several reports over the past few weeks as examples of the growing trend of migrants smuggling migrants.

Olivarez says troopers are seeing at least one smuggling interdiction per day where a migrant is involved as a smuggler. He added that at least one migrant said he was driving the load of migrants as a way to pay off the money he owes his smugglers.

Border Patrol officials in Arizona also report on the issue of migrants smuggling migrants. Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John R. Modlin tweeted photos from a traffic stop that followed surveillance camera operators observing unusual activity along the border. Ajo Station agents stopped the SUV and found the driver, a Mexican citizen, attempting to smuggle four migrants.

Wilcox Station agents also interdicted a smuggling incident near Tombstone, Arizona, where a Mexican citizen was apprehended while smuggling four other migrants.