Border Patrol on Monday night arrested two men from Dallas after agents say they found 27 people in the country illegally hidden inside a swimming pool that the men were hauling.
A criminal complaint says Daniel Enrique Nuñez and Francisco Estala Jr. arrived at the Falfurrias checkpoint at around 9:47 p.m. that day in a white Ford F-250 that was towing a flat-bed trailer loaded with a swimming pool, which was covered by a black tarp.
According to Border Patrol, Estala was driving the vehicle and Nuñez was a passenger.
During the primary inspection, a canine alerted to the swimming pool and the men were sent to the secondary lane for further inspection, where agents removed the black tarp and found the 27 people, according to a criminal complaint.
Agents then placed the men under arrest and say while Estala declined to speak to them without an attorney, Nuñez was willing to make a statement in which he told agents he agreed to smuggle 10 to 15 people and that he brought his friend, Estala, along because he did not have a driver’s license.
Nuñez said he was told that they would each earn $10,000 apiece to transport to people from Mission to Houston, and that they flew in from Dallas for that specific purpose, according to the complaint.
Both men were scheduled to make a first appearance Thursday in Corpus Christi federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Mitchel Neurock, court records show.
