Border Patrol agents arrested a man who allegedly tried to smuggle five people inside a box that was latched shut, according to a criminal complaint.
Alejandro Acosta was charged with smuggling people illegally present in the country on Friday.
Acosta arrived at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint near Falfurrias about 12:30 p.m.
Agents asked if he was alone and inquired about the contents of his van.
According to the complaint, Acosta claimed he was alone and said the van only contained work tools.
“While answering the agent, Acosta kept looking towards the back of the van instead of directly at the agent he was answering while stuttering his responses,” the complaint said.
The agent then asked Acosta for consent to conduct an X-ray scan of his vehicle and he agreed.
The X-ray machine noticed anomalies, and after a search of the vehicle, agents found five people inside a metal box that was latched shut. There was no mechanism that would’ve allowed the box to be opened from the inside, according to the complaint.
All five people inside are from Mexico and were arrested along with Acosta.
The complaint stated Acosta had been arrested on similar charges in mid-August in Sarita after agents found four people inside a wooden container. Acosta used the alias Alejandro De La Garza in that incident.
Acosta told authorities that a dispatcher named Versace told him about a maintenance job in Calallen, Texas, so he picked up his work vehicle from Versace’s house in Harlingen between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Friday.
He said he didn’t know there were people in the back of his van and felt he was set up by Versace like his prior arrest.
Acosta added that he went 45 minutes of his way by taking Highway 281 to Calallen instead of Highway 77 because the agents at the Highway 77 checkpoint knew him from his prior arrest.
A man at the bottom of the metal box told agents he was scared and couldn’t breathe because the other four people were piled on top of him.
A second man said the box was hot inside and the confined space made it difficult to breathe. He added that the last person to enter the box shut the lid behind him which was then latched shut.
Acosta is set to appear before Magistrate Judge Julie K Hampton for his detention hearing on Thursday.
