AUSTIN, Texas — A teenage driver smuggling more than a dozen people from the U.S.-Mexico border led police on a late-night, high-speed chase outside Uvalde, Texas, before crashing and fleeing the vehicle, abandoning those packed inside.
A Texas Department of Public Safety officer on Tuesday attempted to pull over the pickup truck on FM-481, a country road that connects Uvalde with the border town of Eagle Pass, according to an agency spokesman.
The 18-year-old driver ignored prompts to pull over and picked up speed, leading police on a chase.
“[Troopers] disabled the vehicle, the driver bailed out, & fled on foot. [Troopers] chased the driver & apprehended him,” said Chris Olivarez, spokesman for Texas DPS’s southern region, in a post to Twitter on Friday.
FBI: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT KILLED BY BORDER PATROL SPENT 11 YEARS IN PRISON FOR VIOLENT ASSAULT
UVALDE CO – An 18yr old driver led @TxDPS on a high-speed chase on FM 481. Tpr’s disabled the vehicle, the driver bailed out, & fled on foot. Tpr’s chased the driver & apprehended him. He was arrested for smuggling 13 illegal immigrants from MX. #OperationLoneStar pic.twitter.com/rY8qwk8vtp
— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) October 7, 2022
It is not clear how DPS troopers forced the truck to stop.
Footage from police vehicles and body cameras show two men exit the vehicle immediately after it crashed into the curb. One man stood there while the driver bolted, leading police on a short foot chase across the street before he surrendered to the officers.
DPS officers have been deployed to the border for more than a year as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. The Republican governor commenced the billion-dollar initiative as the number of people illegally crossing the southern border spiked at the onset of the Biden administration.
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Troopers largely patrol roads for drivers smuggling people who made it across the border without being caught by Border Patrol and are now being transported further into the U.S.
The driver was arrested on charges of smuggling 13 people in his truck from Mexico.
