The smuggled individuals are Brazilian, Mexican, Guatemalan, Salvadoran, and Honduran, and the drivers of the vehicles are American citizens. Border officials say they were examined and did not require “medical attention.”
“Despite the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, smugglers continue to show little or no regard for the safety of our Nation by indiscriminately smuggling criminals and convicted felons into the country,” CBP said in a press statement announcing the arrests.
“Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents will continue to keep our country and communities safe from dangerous criminals as they strive to uphold the agency’s Core Values of Vigilance, Service, and Integrity.”
Elsewhere in the Laredo area, CBP agents stationed in Cotulla took 14 train jumpers into custody last Tuesday.
Despite the week’s extreme weather and power grid events, narcotics traffickers did not take a break either.
CBP reported that a group of drug traffickers attempted to bring 945 pounds of marijuana into Texas in two separate incidents on Wednesday. They allegedly tried to bring the stash across the border and abandoned it on the bank of the Rio Grande River.
Border patrol confiscated the narcotics, which have a combined estimated street value of $755,920.
Similar occurrences in Brownsville last week resulted in the seizure of $743,632 worth of heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine.
At the Gateway International Bridge, authorities took what they believe to be seven pounds of heroin from a 37-year-old Cuban man, who was arrested for trying to bring it into Texas in a 2004 Chrysler vehicle.
At the same location, a 27-year-old woman from Brownsville was taken into custody for allegedly trying to smuggle 24 pounds of methamphetamine and nine pounds of cocaine in a 2010 Chrysler vehicle.
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Hayden Sparks
Hayden Sparks is a senior reporter for The Texan and a lifelong resident of the Lone Star State. He has coached competitive speech and debate and has been involved in politics since a young age. One of Hayden's favorite quotes is by Sam Houston: "Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may."