U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a man and a woman attempting to smuggle 24 illegal immigrants crammed in to the back of a van.
At about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday a Chevy van approached the Highway 111 checkpoint. Agents questioned the woman who claimed to be a United States citizen. They also questioned a 29-year old man who was a passenger in the van and he said he was a Mexican citizen. The van was sent to secondary inspection where agents discovered 24 people in the back of the van. All 24 were determined to be in the U.S. illegally. The woman driver and the male passenger were both arrested and charged with smuggling the illegal immigrants. Of the 24 in the back of the van , there were 20 Mexican men , 2 Mexican women , 1 Mexican juvenile and one man from Guatemala. All are being held as material witnesses.
Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez said , " The handling of the van could have been drastically altered due to the overloading of passengers. These two smugglers obviously had no regard for the safety of the people they were smuggling , as no one in the back of the van was secured with a seat belt."