Suspected human smugglers were arrested this week while allegedly attempting to hide migrants inside modified hay bales, officials said.
Deputies conducting a routine traffic stop on a pickup pulling a hay trailer Tuesday near Flatonia, Texas, noticed that the bales inside the trailer had been hollowed out to create compartments, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office said.
After looking more closely, the deputies noticed there were people inside the bales in “dangerously confined spaces” below a metal framework and layers of hay.
“This method of concealment is not only deceptive but incredibly dangerous to human life,” the sheriff’s office said in a release. “Smugglers continue to use increasingly creative and hazardous techniques to transport individuals across Texas highways.”
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said deputies did a closer inspection after reaching out to the Border Patrol’s Sector Intelligence Unit for assistance when inconsistencies emerged as they questioned the driver and passengers of the pickup.
Twelve migrants were found hidden inside the hay bales.
The driver, Delbert Flanders, 44, of Kansas, was taken to a hospital for treatment, and the accused coordinators of the operation — Adanaylo Lambert, 22, and Lency Delgado Fernandez, 25 — were taken into custody and face federal and state human smuggling charges.
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The migrants were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for processing.
In a separate incident, two human smugglers were sentenced May 15 after a series of high-speed chases near the border.
A judge sentenced Juan Miguel Regalado to 66 months in prison, while Samuel Grajeda Jr. was previously sentenced to 30 months.
Both must also serve three years of supervised release.
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