CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A minor crash leads troopers to find 25 undocumented immigrants hiding inside a trailer of a box truck on Wednesday.
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) said a concerned citizen at a truck stop led troopers to a minor crash in the parking lot along I-37 in George West.
When troopers contacted the driver, a woman, she said she was driving to Houston after picking up mattresses in Alton. However, troopers said the woman’s story was inconsistent and requested to search her trailer. With assistance from the George West Police Department, they found 25 people crammed up in a small corner of the truck behind mattresses with no ventilation.
Troopers said they found 12 men, 12 women, and an 11-year-old child. All individuals are from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, India, Cuba, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
Police arrested the driver, 43-year-old Silvia Patricia Santamaria from Houston, and charged her with 25 counts of human smuggling.
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