‘I Ain’t Smuggling Nobody,’ Says Driver of Migrant-Packed SUV near Border in Texas

A Texas DPS trooper spotted a suspected human smuggling vehicle near the border close to Del Rio. The ensuing traffic stop led to the discovery of seven migrants in the back of the vehicle and a dubious denial from the driver.

“I ain’t smuggling nobody,” the driver told the DPS Trooper Gooding after she found seven migrants stacked like cordwood in the rear of the vehicle. Despite the denial, the trooper arrested the driver and his front-seat passenger — both from the Houston area.

DEL RIO – Out last night w/ @TxDPS @TxDPSSouth Tpr Gooding as she locates human smugglers using highway corridors for human smuggling. We came across 2 human smugglers from Houston who were smuggling 7 illegal immigrants from MX. Great work by Tpr Gooding! #OperationLoneStar pic.twitter.com/8E6dyNqr1e

— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) October 5, 2022

Texas DPS spokesman, Lt. Christopher Olivarez told Breitbart Texas that the front seat passenger is the owner of the suspected smuggling vehicle. The man reportedly told the trooper the people were workers he was taking to a job in San Antonio.

When confronted with the fact that the migrants were laying down in the back and were soaked and covered in mud, the man stuck with his story that they were his workers.

The driver and the passenger reportedly had wildly different stories about how they ended up along the border near Del Rio and who the people in the back of the SUV were.

The two alleged human smugglers reportedly traveled to San Antonio to look for work. Neither had an explanation as to how they ended up in Del Rio.

Officials identified the seven migrants as Mexican nationals without paperwork to be legally present in the United States.

Olivarez said that in addition to her work along the border-region highways to stop human smuggling, Trooper Gooding is also a pilot who flies border missions for the department. She is assigned to work border security patrols under Operation Lone Star.