Thread: Police chase truck full of illegal immigrants from China

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Police chase truck full of illegal immigrants from China
Aug 12, 2005, 10:48 PM

CORPUS CHRISTI - A truck loaded with illegal immigrants led law enforcement on a high speed chase across southwestern Nueces County Friday morning. The chase started about 9:00 AM on U.S. 77 and County Road 4.

It ended about an hour later, on County Road 51 just south of FM 70, near the Nueces and Kleberg county line. This particular group wasn't typical of the vast majority of illegal immigrants who cross into South Texas.

After eluding constables, the Border Patrol and the Nueces County Sheriff's Department, a truck full of illegal aliens was caught when an AEP/CPL meter reader spotted their truck in a ditch. What officers found when they got there was not what they were expecting. As these illegal immigrants waited by the side of the road, law enforcement officers searched the truck and the ditches for signs of the driver.

"I'm sure we're missing the driver, because they're usually the ones; they'll bail out first and they'll run," said Nueces County Sheriff Capt. Vidal J. De La Cerda. "This is part of their job, this is what they do, the coyotes, is to transport illegals into the country. So, they know the ropes, and a lot of times they abandon these poor people behind, like they got, and they have nowhere to go, don't speak the language, so they pretty much gave it up."

Along the way, the officers tried to talk to the illegals immigrants but that task was made difficult by the unique language barrier. Officials believe these illegals were from China.

"They appear to be from China. They hardly speak any English at all. We did find the majority of them have about $50.00 on them…a little food, a little water, so apparently they were trying to make it up north somewhere." Officials said in the last six months or so they have seen quite a few illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico and they say that is a big concern."

"That raises an alarm to us in law enforcement where we have to be more careful as to what kind of individual we're going to pull over. We don't know if these guys were terrorists, if they had weapons on them or if the were just trying to find a job in the country. It could go either way, so it's getting a little dangerous," Capt. Cerda said.

Border Patrol agents brought in a K-9 unit from the sheriff's department, but they still haven't been able to find the truck driver.

I guess they had a chink in their armor.