Authorities in Mexico found 22 migrants who were abandoned by smugglers inside a truck that had a blown tire. The migrants did not have paperwork to be in the country and are believed to have been headed north to the U.S. border.

The incident took place this week along the highway that connects the cities of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, and Durango, Durango, in western Mexico. According to information provided to Breitbart Texas by the National Immigration Institute (INM), the discovery occurred when authorities spotted an abandoned truck that appeared to be hauling a load of hay. The truck had a flat tire, but when authorities with Mexico’s National Guard checked the back, they found that the hay was used to conceal an area where a group of migrants were hiding.

Mexican National Guardsmen and INM agents detained 22 migrants who had been hidden in a truck and left behind by smugglers. (Photo: Mexico INM)

The group was made up of 17 adults and four minors from Guatemala, and one adult from Honduras. After getting the migrants off the truck, INM agents picked them up and took them to their station in Zacatecas for processing. Officials temporarily turned the minors over to a state shelter.

Mexican INM agents arrived to take custody of 22 migrants who had been found inside an abandoned truck. (Photo: Mexico INM)

Since the migrants did not have proper travel documents in Mexico, they are expected to be held at an INM facility until they are removed from the country. Authorities could not find the human smugglers who left the group behind.

The detention comes at a time when criminal organizations continue to profit vastly from smuggling migrants and asylum seekers through Mexico toward the U.S. border.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “Williams Cortez” from Baja California.