FALFURRIAS, Texas – Sixty people who were commingled within a load of produce were rescued by Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said.
Agents referred a tractor-trailer driver to secondary inspection early Saturday after officials said a K-9 alerted to the discovery of the large group lying on and within pallets of broccoli lined with a thin sheet of ice.
The trailer's doors were secured with a padlock, and the group had no means of escape. Officials said the trailer's temperature reading was 49 degrees.
Medical attention was offered to those who were rescued, but all declined, officials said. They were taken to the Falfurrias Border Patrol Station and processed accordingly.
CBP officials said the group consisted of 22 Guatemalans, 17 Mexicans, 13 Salvadorans and eight Hondurans.
The driver, who is a Guatemalan national, was arrested and is facing federal charges for alien smuggling, officials said.
"Criminal activity like this will also lead to serious consequences for truck drivers who engage in smuggling," RGV Sector Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr. said.
"RGV Sector Border Patrol urges immigrants against entrusting callous smugglers and we continuously warn against the dangers of people crossing illegally into the United States through dangerous environmental conditions and cases such as this, where smugglers jeopardize the lives of aliens by locking them in tractor trailers," CBP officials said.
The case is being coordinated with Homeland Security Investigations, officials said.
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