A man caught with nearly 30 undocumented people inside a tractor-trailer at a checkpoint near Falfurrias on Sunday told U.S. Border Patrol agents he was promised $50,000 to smuggle them from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston, according to a criminal complaint affidavit.
Miguel Nicolas Vera was charged with bringing in and harboring aliens after he tried to cross the checkpoint about 12:35 a.m. Sunday and told agents he was hauling bananas to Los Lunas, New Mexico.
One agent referred Vera to a secondary inspection, where a K9 unit was used, the affidavit read.
“Upon further inspection of the trailer, [agents] discovered twenty-nine individuals concealed within the trailer,” the affidavit said.
Once agents determined that all of them were illegally present in the U.S., they took Vera into custody for further questioning.
At approximately 3:27 a.m., about an hour after Vera told agents he didn’t want to provide a statement, Vera knocked on his cell door and said he no longer wished to remain silent. He wanted to speak to agents, according to the affidavit.
During his statement, Vera told agents that a man named “Rudy” recruited him for the smuggling job for a price of $50,000. Vera agreed despite not knowing how many people he’d be smuggling, the affidavit said.
“Vera stated he was told to transport the [people illegally present in the U.S.] to Houston, Texas where he was going to drop them off on the side of the road at a destination which he did not know yet,” the affidavit said.
Vera also told agents that the illegally present people were loaded into his trailer on Highway 88 near Elsa while “Rudy” was present.
A Hondruan man who spoke to agents said he had paid $5,500 to be smuggled to Houston, though his final destination was Indiana. He also said he feared for his life when he was placed inside the trailer, according to the affidavit.
He added that they weren’t told how long they would be in the trailer or how to exit or escape from it in case of an emergency and that they had no way to communicate with anyone outside because their phones were taken away, the document said.
Vera is set to have a detention hearing before Magistrate Judge Mitchel Neurock on Aug. 26.
