(The Center Square) – Texas Department of Public Safety troopers continue to interdict human and drug smuggling operations at the border through Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star.
Recent arrests of smugglers are all men, both U.S. citizens and noncitizens in the country illegally.
In one recent example, several DPS troopers engaged in a high-speed pursuit of an alleged smuggler from Laredo, Texas, in Webb County. The driver sped on Interstate 35 and then through parking lots and neighborhoods attempting to evade capture.
DPS stopped the driver “after successfully performing a precision immobilization technique, or PIT maneuver.” Once stopped, troopers found 10 Mexican nationals in the country illegally hiding in the vehicle, crammed in the rear seat and trunk.
Among them were two children, 8 and 9 years old. DPS troopers charged the driver with “eight counts of smuggling of persons with the likelihood of serious bodily injury or death, two counts of smuggling of persons under the age of 18, evading arrest with the likelihood of serious bodily injury or death, and reckless driving.”
All ten Mexicans inside the vehicle were referred to Border Patrol.
In another instance in Webb County, DPS troopers were also engaged in a high-speed pursuit, this time following a 17-year-old alleged human smuggler from Mexico. He and five Mexican nationals he was allegedly smuggling were all in the U.S. illegally.
The driver led troopers through the county, through a business and residential neighborhood, off road along gravel and grass next to train tracks. At one point, the five Mexicans inside the vehicle bailed out by the train tracks. The driver kept going to evade capture but eventually stopped. He also bailed out and ran toward the brush. A trooper pursued on foot and caught him. The driver was arrested and charged with evading arrest and smuggling of persons.
All five Mexican illegal border crossers were apprehended and referred to Border Patrol.
DPS troopers are also seizing drugs in OLS interdiction efforts.
In one traffic stop in Webb County, DPS troopers seized over 175 pounds of methamphetamine. While searching the vehicle, a DPS trooper found a false compartment in the bed of the truck. Inside were 57 cellophane-wrapped bundles of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $5.7 million.
The driver, a Mexican national, was arrested and charged with felony possession of a controlled substance.
Farther south, in Cameron County, Texas’ southernmost county, a DPS Special Operations Group arrested three Mexican nationals who illegally entered the country after crossing the Rio Grande River. They attempted to smuggle over 150 pounds of marijuana, which DPS seized.
Since Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, DPS and other OLS officers have apprehended more than 525,300 illegal border crossers and made more than 48,300 criminal arrests, with more than 41,700 felony charges reported.
Texas law enforcement officers have also seized more than 552 million lethal doses of fentanyl – enough to kill the populations of the United States and Mexico combined.
“Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the federal government’s refusal to secure the border,” Abbott says. “Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to open border policies.”
