The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) arrested a Mississippi man after allegedly finding 17 illegal immigrants crammed inside a false compartment of a “cloned” home improvement store box truck in Kinney County, according to police bodycam footage.
Cezanne Megel Patterson, 28, of Jackson, Mississippi, was arrested and charged with human smuggling with the likelihood of serious bodily injury or death.
The DPS said in a press release that one of its troopers conducted a traffic stop on what appeared to be a Lowe’s Home Improvement store delivery truck outside of Del Rio, Texas, on US-277, near the southern border during the early morning hours on Friday.
After stopping the truck, the trooper interviewed Patterson and noticed he was demonstrating “strange behavior” and had multiple discrepancies with his travel itinerary, including expired tags on the truck, DPS said.
$380 FROM DHS TO BE GIVEN TO STATES, NGOS IN SUPPORT OF MIGRANTS