Overloaded van contained illegal's

Posted: Feb 7, 2008 02:24 AM

Updated: Feb 7, 2008 06:06 AM

Jennie Runevitch/Eyewitness News

Hendricks County - An investigation into human trafficking is ongoing after police found men, women and children packed into a van in Hendricks County. The people had no proof of citizenship and police say they were at serious risk on the road.

Around noon Tuesday, Hendricks County Sheriff's Deputy Brandon Adams pulled over a Chevy van, with Arizona tags, for a lane violation at a rest stop just west of Plainfield on I-70.

That's when the routine traffic stop became anything but.

Deputy Adams found 20 people packed inside, including three children under three-years-old.

"There were people sitting on top of people. There were people laying in the floor, pretty much stacked inside the van," Adams said.

Police say the group came from Mexico and was traveling through Indiana to New Jersey for jobs.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, now investigating the case, say the "smuggling loads" are dangerous and desperate cross-country drives.

"Normally the smugglers will charge a fee, could be a couple thousand dollars to get an illegal alien across the border and then to their destination in the United States," said ICE Spokesperson Gail Montenegro.

The drivers often go days without sleep and the undocumented workers are treated like cargo.

"The smugglers are in this for a profit, so they pack as many people as possible inside. And many times they're not allowed to stop or to let the people out to use the restroom or to get something to eat, so these are people are packed in there for days...days on end," Montenegro said.

Police say the vehicles in which they're riding are often not well-maintained either.

"And when you add that much weight inside that vehicle, consequences can be catastrophic," Adams said.

Hendricks County Sheriff, Dave Galloway, says this case is not unusual. His deputies have had three similar pull-overs recently involving immigrants, packed as cargo, on our highways.

"To me it's a national problem. It's an immigration problem that needs to be dealt with by Congress," Sheriff Galloway said.

All 20 people found inside the van are now being processed in Indianapolis for deportation, back to Mexico.

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