Border Patrol agents found 18 people crammed inside a truck driver’s sleeper cabin during a highway checkpoint inspection near the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement Thursday.
Agents in Laredo, Texas, inspected the tractor-trailer when it attempted to pass through an immigration checkpoint on Interstate Highway 35 Tuesday.
A Border Patrol K-9 alerted agents and the truck was given a second inspection, at which point law enforcement found nearly 20 people hiding inside the tiny cabin.
All 18 people found inside the truck’s cabin were determined to be Mexican and Guatemalan nationals illegally in the United States. Everyone was deemed to be in good health, according to the agency. It’s not clear if the cabin was air-conditioned.
The driver, a U.S. citizen, was arrested, and the truck was seized by the Border Patrol.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations has taken over the case.
Border Patrol has reported a high number of tractor-trailer incidents this summer. From the beginning of May to early July, agents uncovered more than 40 human smuggling attempts in which more than 400 illegal immigrants were found inside trucks.
The smuggling attempts are most often classified by Border Patrol as rescues because of the conditions inside the trucks that have led to hospitalizations and even the deaths of those being transported.
