(The Center Square)
The multi-agency Operation Lone Star task force, which is actively pursuing a human trafficking operation in a small border community in Kinney County, saved several lives this week, including a 5-year-old girl hiding in a car trunk.
In response to an SOS issued by Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd helped organize a multi-agency task force to lend a hand. On Monday, officials from more than 20 agencies began identifying and interdicting human trafficking routes and actively deterring criminal activity.
On Wednesday, The Center Square Task Force participated in the ride with the Interdiction Unit.
In a pursuit, officers arrested a driver and passenger with criminal records who had been arrested by DPS a few months earlier and released before returning to attempt another smuggling attempt, officials said. They were caught by Kinney County Chief Deputy Armando Garcia, who pulled the driver over for probable cause and discovered five people sitting flat on top of each other in the back seat of the car, including a 4-year-old child. different When officers opened the trunk, they found a 5-year-old girl hidden inside, they said.
She was unresponsive at first but Garcia and his two deputies revived her and saved her life. The alleged smugglers were trying to reach Houston. Law enforcement officials told Center Square that if the child had been in the trunk all the way, she would have died. The driver and passenger were arrested. He later pleaded guilty and authorities discovered he had pictures of piles of cash on his phones to show how much he had profited from smuggling people across the border to other major cities in Texas, law enforcement officials told Center Square. They found Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, the Bronx, New York and New Jersey to be major trafficking locations.
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The driver and passenger received federal prosecution and were turned over to the Border Patrol for allegedly smuggling illegal aliens, officials said.
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In an early morning pursuit, officers chased another alleged smuggler who lost control of his truck and crashed into a fence on Highway 334, starting a fire. The officials arrived at the spot and pulled out the three illegal foreign nationals from the vehicle before it caught fire. While deputies saved the lives of the foreign nationals, the driver and one foreign national escaped in the brush.
Earlier in the week, on the first day of a multi-day operation, officers engaged in a pursuit that led to the driver and occupants bailing out of the vehicle and running into the brush, officials said. Officers chased him on foot and arrested him. In another pursuit that same day, the alleged smuggler led officers through downtown Brackettville, where the sheriff had placed large rocks outside a school to prevent vehicles from crashing. The driver lost control and the vehicle overturned. The driver and everyone inside attempted to evade capture but were apprehended by law enforcement officers and the driver was arrested. The smugglers were handed over to the border patrol.
On Tuesday, authorities again apprehended two human traffickers, officials said. A common technique used to smuggle people is to hide them in the bed of a pickup truck and hide them under the truck bed cover. In one incident, officers pulled over the driver of a Dodge pickup truck and later discovered a passenger was a “brush guide.”
A brush guide is someone responsible for guiding groups of illegally entered foreign nationals north of the US border along major highways and eventually to a pickup point, officials told Center Square. They travel several miles on foot using the GPS on their phones, crossing private property and following pipelines or railroads to avoid law enforcement. When they reach the pre-arranged location, the driver picks up the group and takes them to their next destination.
Officials said that the illegal transporters were hiding in the truck bed. The arresting officer opened the truck’s tailgate and stuffed five people into the idling under the covers. The driver and passengers were arrested and detained and the smugglers handed over to the Border Patrol.
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While riding with the officer on Wednesday, Center Square noticed a possible scout pulling over from Austin. Officials explained that cartel operatives pay scouts to drive in areas across the border to identify where law enforcement officials are and report their locations to smugglers so they can be avoided when loading people north.
In another instance, a teenager and a young man from Houston were driving around downtown Brackettville in two separate vehicles. When the teenager was pulled over, after a search, the officer found on him xeroxed copies of the photo IDs of Honduran nationals – people waiting to be smuggled north, the officer said.
By Wednesday night, deputies in another manhunt had nabbed an alleged smuggler believed to have taken escapees from a previous bailout, all single Mexican nationals in the U.S. illegally, officials said.
“Without Governor Greg Abbott, Operation Lone Star, caffeine and patriotism, we wouldn’t have done it,” Coe said.
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.