Mexican Police Arrest Human Smuggler, Migrants in Cloned Border Patrol Truck

Municipal police in Mexico arrested an alleged human smuggler and 16 migrants after the group attempted to enter the United States by cutting through a border fence. The police found the group in a cloned U.S. Border Patrol pickup truck.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens tweeted a group of photos showing Mexican police arresting a group of migrants. The photos show a white pickup truck with markings applied to resemble a Border Patrol vehicle.

DYK: Smugglers “clone” vehicles to resemble law enforcement or business ones.
El Centro agents stopped a cloned BP vehicle from entering the U.S. after observing a subject trying to breach the border fence w/ a cutting torch. Mexican officials responded and arrested 17 subjects. pic.twitter.com/eVwE4XtH3a

— Chief Jason Owens (@USBPChief) July 25, 2023

Owens reported the smugglers attempted to cut through the border fence in the El Centro Sector. The Border Patrol agents responded to the incident after observing the smugglers using a cutting torch to attempt a breach of the border fence.

The agents stopped the crossing attempt as Mexican police arrived and placed the 17 subjects under arrest, Owens stated.

Breitbart Texas reported in September 2022 that El Centro Sector agents using video surveillance cameras observed what they believed to be a cloned Border Patrol SUV crossing the border from Mexico. The agents engaged the smuggler who refused to stop and led agents on a pursuit.

Then El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino tweeted photos of a Chevrolet Tahoe with a fake U.S. Border Patrol livery. The vehicle also did not have emergency lights.

Chief Bovino was recently removed as sector chief by the Biden administration in what appeared to be a retaliatory action following the chief’s transcribed testimony about the current state of the border, Breitbart Texas reported. The removal came within hours of the chief providing the written testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Bovino is now assigned to what is described as “a vague, indefinite, and temporary headquarters assignment as punishment for the voluntary transcribed interview about the border situation he provided to both committees on July 12, 2023.”

The use of cloned vehicles by migrant smugglers is not an uncommon occurrence.

As far back as 2015, smugglers utilized a fake Border Patrol vehicle, Breitbart Texas reported. Laredo Sector agents found the vehicle near Cotulla, Texas, approximately 65 miles from the border with Mexico.

Tucson Sector agents found ten more migrants being smuggled in a cloned patrol vehicle. In this case, the driver also appeared to be wearing the uniform of a federal agent.

Smugglers also utilize other official-looking vehicles to sneak their cargo into the U.S. interior.

Last month, Douglas Station agents in the Tucson Sector found a fake fire department vehicle smuggling migrants near the border wall.

Smugglers also used a stolen EMS vehicle in August 2018 to attempt to sneak a load of migrants through the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint on U.S. Highway 281 in Brooks County, Texas.