How did the truck get across the border without being opened and inspected? Seems that would be a routine check. If there are places on the border where a truck/trailer can go across unchecked (probably more than a few) seems the BP would have that under remote surveillance.
I don't get it. Somebody who is familiar with this can educate me.
I just thought of one way. People are smuggled underground across the border and loaded into trailers on the US side, maybe.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
They likely crossed the border on foot, away from a roadway/checkpoint, guided by a coyote, who brought them to a location where they were bundled on the truck to be brought further in.Originally Posted by Borderland
"It was the fuck aroundest of times, it was the find outest of times."- 45dotACP
That’s not how that works.
They cross the border on boats/rafts or wade across on foot led by guides (Coyotes) They then walk to pick up points near the border.. From there they may be transported north by vehicle or they may be collected in a local stash house until there are enough to fill a vehicle.
The next barrier are the interior enforcement checkpoints with 125 miles of the border. A large load of people in a trailer like that is not gonna make it through an interior checkpoint so they will usually do one of two things. Try to take back roads to go around the checkpoint and hope they don’t get stopped by border patrol agents looking for that tactic Or they will pull off onto a side road or private property prior to the checkpoint, unload everyone and have them walk cross country through the brush around the checkpoint and get picked up again on the other side of the checkpoint.
With human smuggling, if they get caught most will simply be returned to Mexico or the country of origin. Often times their smuggling fee includes “insurance quote in which the smuggler will smuggle them in again if you get caught and returned.
Nothing to really contribute other than an older heart breaking read:
The Devil's Highway - A True Story
no one sees what's written on the spine of his own autobiography.
The use of cloned vehicles for smuggling is not uncommon.
https://www.expressnews.com/news/loc...SAEN_210Report
Truck with dozens of dead migrants inside was ‘cloned,’ trucking company says
A semi found Monday night in San Antonio with a trailer stacked with the bodies of 46 immigrants was “cloned,” said the owners of a South Texas trucking company.
Four more people who were discovered still alive in the rig have since died, bringing the death toll to 50.
Felipe Betancourt Sr. and his son, Felipe Jr., said in an interview that someone cloned their truck, with the same color and identifying numbers from the federal Department of Transportation and the Texas DOT. But the cloned truck does not bear the Betancourt Trucking and Harvesting logo like their company vehicles.
“Ours is sitting right here,” Felipe Jr. said by phone. “My truck doesn’t have a window on the side like the one in San Antonio.”
He said their truck has not been to San Antonio recently, and has been hauling grain from Harlingen to Progreso.
Our reefer (refrigerated trailer) is sitting right in the yard,” Felipe Jr. said. “That one in San Antonio is not our trailer.”
Betancourt Trucking is based in Alamo.
He said his father started the business in 2007 and bought the truck, a Volvo, in 2020, a couple of months before the pandemic began.
“They have info on the truck that doesn’t belong to them,” Felipe Jr. Said, referring to the human traffickers behind Monday’s tragedy in San Antonio.
Sounds like they had some help from some people living along the border in the US.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
A little more anecdotal evidence, noting that junior enlisted make for easier marks:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvn5...uman-smuggling
50 deaths from a failed border policy that will get forgotten in the context of the other more attractive issues of the day.
And for those on the line, we know there is a looming tidal wave 🌊 out there just beyond the horizon. Good luck.
Now 51.
3 arrested in connection with human-smuggling tragedy on San Antonio’s Southwest Side that left 51 dead
https://www.expressnews.com/news/loc...xpressBriefing
Federal authorities arrested three people Tuesday in connection with a human smuggling incident on San Antonio’s Southwest Side that left 51 migrants dead — making it one of the deadliest such episodes in recent history.
Homero Zamorano, 45, was arrested after officials say he abandoned the tractor-trailer in a desolate area near Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and fled the scene. Zamorano has addresses in Houston and the Rio Grande Valley.
”He was very high on meth when he was arrested nearby and had to be taken to the hospital,” a law enforcement officer said.
After arresting Zamorano, authorities traced the semitruck to a home in the 100 block of Arnold in Bexar County. They put the house under surveillance and saw two men — Juan Francisco D’Luna-Bilbao and Juan Claudio D’Luna-Mendez — leaving in a truck, sources said.
When authorities stopped the truck, one of the men confessed to having a weapon in the vehicle. Officers obtained a search warrant and searched the home on Arnold, where they found more guns, according to court records.
The two men were arrested on suspicion of possessing firearms while in the country illegally. They were detained without bail after a brief hearing in federal court.
Zamorano may appear Wednesday in federal court on human smuggling charges. He has a long criminal history.
Details continued to emerge Tuesday. The doomed migrants were covered in meat seasoning to mask their scent, law enforcement officials said, and were stuffed into a truck had been “cloned” to look like a legitimate truck.
According to two law enforcement officials, the truck traveled from Laredo up Interstate 35 to San Antonio. With Interstate 10 running east to west and Interstate 35 south to north, San Antonio is a major crossroads for human smuggling.
The Volvo truck, a red tractor unit with a large white trailer, was found around 5:50 p.m. Monday after nearby workers heard cries for help and walked over to the tractor-trailer to investigate.
One person was outside the trailer, lying on the ground. The workers opened the doors and discovered dozens of stacked bodies inside, officials said.
The truck, which was traced to a trucking company based in the border town of Alamo, had been cloned, its owners said. Human smuggling groups and cartels often replicate legitimate vehicles to use in illegal border crossings — going so far as to create fake school buses with mannequins standing in as passengers.
The owners of Betancourt Trucking and Harvesting — Felipe Betancourt Sr. and his son, Felipe Jr. — said someone cloned their truck, with the same color and identifying numbers from the federal Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Transportation. However, the cloned truck does not bear the Betancourt logo, like their company vehicles do.
“Ours is sitting right here,” Felipe Jr. said by phone. “My truck doesn’t have a window on the side like the one in San Antonio. ... That one in San Antonio is not our trailer.””
How long until they are out of jail?
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