An anonymous tip about a parked tractor-trailer with voices coming from inside led Mexican border state authorities to rescue 141 migrants with hopes of reaching Texas. Almost half of the migrants were underage children and teens suffering from extreme heat and unsanitary conditions at the hands of cartel-connected smugglers.
The case took place this week in the municipality of Juarez, Nuevo Leon, 124 miles south of the border with Texas. Juarez is along a main highway that leads from the Monterrey metropolitan area to the border city of Reynosa.
After getting the 911 call, authorities responded to the intersection of Pedro Garza and Bernardo Reyes Streets in downtown Juarez. The police called for backup and began handing out masks while they waited for paramedics to evaluate the group.
Several migrants had to be taken to a local clinic for evaluation or be treated for severe dehydration. Mexico’s National Migration Institute took custody of the Hondurans, Nicaraguans, and Salvadorans.
While authorities were tending to the group, two men identified as 34-year-old José Gerardo García Garza and 22-year-old Oscar Alejandro Villarreal Compean approached the trailer to inquire about the scene. Authorities then arrested them after learning they reportedly owned and operated the trailer.
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is an international journalist with more than 20 years of experience working in high-risk areas for print and broadcast news outlets investigating organized crime, corruption, and drug trafficking in the U.S. and Mexico. In 2016, Gerald took up the pseudonym of “Tony” when he joined Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project. Since then, he has come out of the shadows and become a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas.
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