Thread: TX-Officials: Man attempts to smuggle illegal immigrants

Officials: Man attempts to smuggle illegal immigrants
April 10, 2010 10:14 PM
By MICHAEL BARAJAS

COMBES — Investigators with the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office arrested a man Wednesday, saying he attempted to smuggle illegal immigrants north through Combes, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

The DA’s Special Operations Group arrested Daniel Garcia, 22, Wednesday on two charges of unlawful transport, the affidavit states. Although it’s unclear where Garcia was arrested, the document lists him as a Mexican citizen.

On March 29, the DA’s office received a tip from a confidential source that Garcia had paid a driver $1,000 to transport two Mexican nationals from Brownsville north to Houston in a blue 2002 Ford Ranger pickup, the court document states. Once the driver reached Houston, Garcia planned to pay the driver an additional $1,000, the document says.

No charges were listed against the driver.

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers stopped the truck as it traveled northbound on US 77 between Combes and Sebastian, the court document shows. In the rear cabin of the truck, DPS troopers found two illegal immigrants buried beneath piles of blankets, officials said.

The two men, the document says, could have suffered serious injury or death because they were in an unsecured and unventilated area of the vehicle.

The two immigrants were transferred to U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, who determined that both men were from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and had illegally entered the country, the affidavit states.

Garcia was listed as being held in the Cameron County Jail on two charges of unlawful transport with bail set at $15,000.


http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/s ... ombes.html

Why wasn't the driver charged? He was the one that was doing the illegal transport?