US Border Patrol agents uncovered a human smuggling operation in Van Horn, TX and rescued over 30 migrants who were close to dying.
The US Customs and Border Protection agents were alerted about suspicious activity related to a possible human-smuggling scheme near a McDonald’s restaurant in Van Horn, the agency said. They approached the U-Haul box truck, and discovered “33 people who were close to perishing due to excessive heat and lack of fresh air in temperatures still hovering near 100 degrees.”
Emergency medical technicians embedded in the Border Patrol’s Special Operations Group “immediately began triage operations to determine who needed transport to regional hospitals and who could be treated on-scene,” officials said.
“Over the next few hours 12 patients were transported to regional hospitals while many more were evaluated and treated for symptoms of dehydration on-scene. There were no casualties,” the statement added.
The people, who were from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, were all placed under arrest along with the driver and a passenger, both US citizens, pending further investigation, it said.