A woman was arrested Friday after border agents discovered 13 people illegally in the country hidden inside a U-Haul she claimed she was using to move from San Antonio to McAllen.
According to Border Patrol, she said it was for a job as a gas station cashier.
Rodranique Sonsaray Jones was charged with transporting people in the country illegally and was scheduled to make a first appearance in federal court in Corpus Christi on Monday morning.
Border Patrol encountered Jones at the Falfurrias checkpoint at 3:20 p.m. Friday when she arrived in the U-Haul box truck.
The agent asked Jones how she was doing and she told the agent about the alleged move, according to the complaint.
“Throughout the conversation the agent noticed Jones kept glancing at her side view mirrors looking towards the back,” the complaint stated.
When asked what she was hauling, Jones said the truck was empty but Border Patrol agents said she became defensive when they asked for consent to X-Ray the vehicle, according to the complaint.
That’s when a Border Patrol K-9 alerted authorities to the U-Haul and she was referred for a secondary inspection, which is where agents found 13 people from Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador locked in the vehicle, according to the complaint.
Jones was arrested and told Border Patrol agents in an interview that her cousin’s friend offered her the job, which she accepted because she needed money.
Originally, she said she was going to transport 31 people to Houston, according to the complaint.
Jones said she rented the U-Haul in San Antonio and then drove to McAllen where she rented a hotel room. A man later contacted her and told her to go to a warehouse, where she picked up the people, according to the complaint.
She claimed she was going to be paid $85,000 to deliver them to Houston, according to Border Patrol.
