Plane Carrying Illegal Immigrant Crashes Near Pleasanton

POSTED: 4:57 pm CDT May 8, 2008
UPDATED: 5:50 pm CDT May 8, 2008


PLEASANTON, Texas -- A plane that skidded off the runway was just the start of what police said was the end of a bi-national trek for an illegal immigrant.

Law enforcement officials stopped a car carrying a woman, two men and a child about the same time state troopers received a call for a plane crash at the Pleasanton airport. When troopers investigated inside the plane, they found the identification of the woman in the vehicle, investigators said.

Investigators identified the woman as an illegal immigrant.

"The female in the plane was paying the smugglers to transport her and her child to this airport," Atascosa County Narcotics Task Force Sgt. Danny Dawson said. "Another vehicle was going to take (one of the men in the vehicle) to San Antonio."

One man was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant and is now facing custody charges, investigators said. The woman was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment for injuries suffered in the plane crash and immigration officials have been called to take her into custody, investigators said.

The child was left with another man in the vehicle, identified by investigators as a U.S. citizen, but they are now looking for him again to question him further about his involvement.

http://www.ksat.com/news/16205061/detail.html