Thread: Human smuggling charges after 12 rescued from hot truck

Human smuggling charges after 12 rescued from hot truck

Tue 10:12 AM, Jul 11, 2017



HOUSTON (AP) - Three people have been charged with human smuggling after a dozen more people, believed from Latin America, were rescued from the locked cargo area of a box truck where they had been left to swelter in the Houston summer heat.




Harris County prosecutors say the trapped people banged on the truck walls to get the attention of passersby as the temperature inside topped 100 degrees. The truck was left Sunday on the city's west side where police found them soaked in sweat and exhausted. They include 10 men, one woman and one girl. All are in custody.

Twenty-one-year-old Priscila Perez Beltran, 26-year-old Adela Alvarez and 27-year-old Nelson Cortes Garcia were arrested and are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. They are each being held on $300,000 bond.

http://www.kbtx.com/content/news/Hum...433805193.html

Deport each and every one of them...fast track the pregnant ones out of here!

The 3 charged for smuggling should lose all privileges if they are green card holders. Deport them right along with those they tried to smuggle in!

Accused smugglers linked to 12 people in truck had worked together before, prosecutors say

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Previous SlideNext SlideFull screenAlvarez admitted to bringing her aunt and uncle into the United States states without documentation on a separate trip, the prosecutor said.


Officers with the Houston Police Department found a ledger that had names and dollar amounts, which Alvarez said were names of people and the fees they paid to be taken into the United States, the prosecutor said.
Neither Beltran, Cortes Garcia, nor Alvarez are U.S. citizens, according to court documents.
The 12 people they are believed to have smuggled into the country did not appear to be citizens either and likely entered the country without legal documentation, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Greg Palmore. They were from countries including El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.
Beltran, Cortes Garcia and Alvarez were each charged Sunday with three counts of human smuggling. Their charges were elevated from a third to a second degree charge because one of the people they are believed to have smuggled was a minor and because all 12 of their victims were placed in serious harm, said JoAnne Musick, an assistant district attorney for sex crimes and human trafficking.
Houston police officers arrested the trio at a strip mall at 7636 Harwin, off the Westpark Tollway.
They were just steps away from a box truck inside which officers found 10 men, one woman and a 16-year-old girl. The temperature of the box truck exceeded 100 degrees, according to a news release from the Harris County District Attorney's office.