Seven people were arrested and 11 illegal aliens were hospitalized after Texas authorities found over two dozen illegals who had been smuggled over the border in a secret compartment within a trailer.
According to Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, law enforcement acting on a tip about an alleged smuggling operation tailed the trailer as it was driven to a stash house in a rural area near San Antonio.
Law enforcement found 26 illegals inside the residence which Sheriff Salazar said was more of a “shack” without running water. Eleven of the illegals were transported to the hospital with minor injuries some of which were heat-related.
According to the sheriff, the illegals were kept in the trailer’s secret compartment for three hours in the sweltering heat.
Sheriff Salazar said all of the illegals found in the stash house appeared to be adults. While the nationalities of the 26 individuals had yet to be determined, one of the women told law enforcement that she paid $16,000 to smugglers to be transported from Guatemala to the US border.
The sheriff told reporters that they were not sure when the illegals crossed the southern border but believed that the smugglers drove them from Loredo, Texas, about 160 miles away.
Salazar blamed the smuggling operation on Mexican cartels, noting that law enforcement found bullet-proof vests and firearms inside the stash house. While some of the individuals fled the scene when law enforcement arrived, the sheriff said they believed that everyone involved in the smuggling operation had been apprehended.
The sheriff also noted how well the illegals were hidden in the trailer as proof that the operation was cartel-related. He said the illegals had been so well-hidden that “you could be standing right there” next to the trailer and not know that 26 people were inside.
The ongoing illegal alien crisis has become a political liability for President Biden in the upcoming election. Just two days before the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office arrested the seven smugglers, the president unveiled an executive order to ostensibly restrict asylum-seeking at the US border.
