Okawville Police Nab Illegal Aliens

Nashville News
March 8, 2012

A traffic stop in Okawville led to the discovery of 11 illegal aliens packed in a van. Three of them made a bid for freedom but were rounded up shortly after they fled.


Okawville Police Chief Steve Millikin said the incident began as a simple traffic stop on State Route 177 near Interstate 64 Wednesday night.


After stopping a van for running a stop sign and having only one headlight, Sgt. J.T. Tabor and officer Justin Mendenhall saw 11 Hispanic people, nine males and two females, jammed into the vehicle.


“None of them had any legal identification and only the driver spoke any English,” Millikin said.


Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were notified, and the group was taken to the Okawville police station.


As they were being taken into the station, three of the males ran away heading south.


Okawville officers were joined by two county deputies, two Irvington officers and a Germantown officer.


A search revealed one of the men under a van at Streuter Chevrolet. When he refused to comply with an officer’s command, he was tased. The man was subdued but uninjured, the chief said.


Another was found hiding under an oil barrel, and the third was in a pickup truck.


They were rounded up in about 30 minutes, and all of them were then transported by ICE agents to St. Louis. Two of them had already been deported once, the chief said. He was told they were from Central America.


“It was the first time we’ve used our tasers,” Millikin said. “We’ve had them since the fall of 2004.” He added that the threat of being tased often defuses a potentially violent situation.


Okawville police retained custody of the van, and there is a chance it will eventually be turned over to them.

The Nashville News » Okawville Police Nab Illegal Aliens