Suspected Immigrants, Driver Flee

By DAVID SOMMER The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 17, 2007


DADE CITY - Border Patrol agents were searching for at least one person suspected of smuggling illegal immigrants Wednesday after a traffic stop on Interstate 75, just south of Hernando County.

Seven occupants, including the driver of a Ford F-250 pickup with expired Arizona plates, ran from the scene of the 11:30 a.m. stop and were thought to be hiding in a swampy area, said Steve McDonald, the Border Patrol agent in charge of the federal agency's Tampa office.

Three people detained at the scene are thought to be illegal immigrants who paid smugglers to transport them to South Florida, McDonald said.

"The driver bailed and is still at large," McDonald said. "The primary target of this effort is the driver."

If the man is caught, he will be charged in federal court with transporting illegal immigrants for profit, McDonald said.

Border Patrol agents in an unmarked vehicle were patrolling I-75 on Wednesday morning and spotted the overloaded pickup near Bushnell. They followed the truck as the driver exited in Hernando, "blew a stop sign" and drove back up a ramp onto the interstate, McDonald said.

The Border Patrol teams usually work the interstate, which McDonald described as a "main thoroughfare that is exploited by the smugglers," about twice a week.

Typically, the smugglers load up near the southwest border and head east on Interstate 40 and then south on I-75, he said. They avoid interstates 10 and 20 because the Border Patrol maintains full-time checkpoints on those highways.

Agents will scour the pickup for clues about the driver or drivers' identities, McDonald said. They will look for gas receipts, so they can check service station surveillance cameras along smuggling routes, he said.

"There is a lot of things we can do to try and ID this guy that's eluded us," he said.

Since Oct. 1, the Tampa Border Patrol unit has stopped 17 loads of illegal immigrants and arrested 23 suspected smugglers, Supervisory Agent Frank Allen said Wednesday.

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