Border Patrol Expands Most Wanted Human Smuggler Program

Border Patrol officials are expanding a successful anti-human smuggler “most wanted” program to the Del Rio Sector in Texas. The program, called “Se Busca Información,” has yielded successful results in other sectors where it has been implemented.

The program is being initiated in the Del Rio Sector to help identify some of the most active suspected smugglers in the area by placing their photos on billboards and flyers. Officials stated they plan to “expand on consequences against dangerous smugglers operating in the Del Rio area,” according to information obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials by Breitbart Texas.

“Human smugglers have no regard for human life” Acting Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Matthew Hudak. “Smugglers subject immigrants to deplorable and dangerous conditions, financially exploit them, and often abandon them in the unforgiving terrain of the south Texas border.”

“To smugglers, immigrants are nothing more than a commodity to profit from,” Hudak stated.

The Se Busca Información program utilizes conspicuous billboards and flyers showing the faces of the top ten suspected smugglers in the area. Se Busca is Spanish for “Wanted.” The program also provides a phone number, 866-511-8727, for people to use to report suspicious activity. Such activity might include people picking up groups of people along the border areas, people being moved in and out of houses in large numbers – particularly at night, or people who look like they might be being held against their will. The suspects are numbers in the photos and tipsters are encouraged to use those numbers. Tips can be made anonymously, officials stated.

“The Del Rio Sector urges immigrants not to trust their lives to smugglers and not to illegally enter the United States,” officials stated.

Earlier this week, officials in the Rio Grande Valley Sector announced the capture of another suspected smuggler, Breitbart Texas reported on Thursday.

Following a tip from a citizen who recognized a suspect from the billboards placed around the Rio Grande Valley, contacted the San Juan Police Department and identified the man in the number six position. That man, Juan Fidel Velasquez-Alvarado, was arrested after the San Juan police forwarded the tip to Border Patrol agents.

The agents quickly found the man and he was arrested without incident, according to a statement provided to Breitbart Texas by Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Marlene Castro, public information officer for the Rio Grande Valley Sector.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.