Police: 16-year-old transported 14 immigrants in stolen truck

November 03, 2011 9:49 PM
By NAXIELY LOPEZ/The Monitor

MISSION — A police operation to recover a stolen vehicle led to the discovery Monday of 14 undocumented immigrants in a truck.

Mission police, along with the U.S. Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety, made the discovery after police spotted a stolen Ford F-250 near Mile 3 and Doffing roads, Sgt. Jody Tittle of the Mission Police Department said. The truck was stolen in Pharr about a week ago.

Officials followed the vehicle with the help of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter to San Manuel before officers pulled it over and discovered 14 illegal immigrants in the truck bed, Tittle said.

Police arrested the driver, a 16-year-old boy, and two other suspected smugglers who followed the truck in a silver Ford Expedition, investigators said.

Police identified the adults as Teresa Colunga, 42, and Guillermo Garcia, 28.

A Mission municipal judge charged them with unlawful transport, a state jail felony, and set bail for each of them at $100,000.

If convicted, they could face up to two years in jail and a fine not to exceed $10,000.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/p ... orted.html