Law enforcement officers in Zavala County, Texas, had their hands full with high-speed pursuits, vehicle crashes, and the associated private property damage resulting from migrant smuggling activities during the first ten days of April. The small sheriff’s department in the county located 30 miles from the Rio Grande was involved in twenty-four such cases in the first ten days of the month.
An alleged human smuggler led Texas Department of Public Safety troopers on a high-speed pursuit near Mission on Wednesday. At the end of the pursuit, troopers and Border Patrol agents arrested the alleged human smuggler and 14 migrants.
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.
A human smuggler attempting to avoid arrest fled from police and rolled an overloaded pickup truck killing two migrants and injuring 12 others. The crash took place in Brooks County, Texas, approximately 80 miles inland from the Texas-Mexico border.
For the second time in less than 24 hours, migrants are dead following a crash as smugglers attempted to avoid arrest. Texas Department of Public Safety officials report that four migrants died and two others are in critical condition when a Jeep driven by a suspected human smuggler crashed into a tractor-trailer while fleeing from law enforcement. Officials report the driver is in critical condition (brain dead).
A suspected human smuggler is in a South Texas jail after leading police on a pursuit that raced through three counties. The pursuit began when the suspected smuggler refused to stop for a traffic violation and ended with the arrest of the smuggler and five migrants.
Mexican federal authorities arrested a group of smugglers who fled from U.S. authorities and drove through a port of entry into Mexico in an attempt to escape. Citizen journalists documented the chase and the conclusion.
A Texas man from Eagle Pass pleaded guilty in federal court to a human smuggling attempt that led to the deaths of five migrants in June 2018. The smugglers packed 13 migrants into a Chevrolet Suburban and then fled from police. The pursuit ended in a fiery rollover crash as the pursuit entered the town of Big Wells.
