A United States man who was hauling tomatoes was arrested last Wednesday at the Falfurrias checkpoint after Border Patrol agents found more than just tomatoes in his reefer trailer.
Roberto Carreon-Lopez was charged with attempting to smuggle 31 people illegally present in the U.S. who were hiding on top of boxes of tomatoes inside his trailer.
According to a criminal complaint, Carreon approached the primary inspection lane at the Falfurrias U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint at around 10:40 p.m. in his blue Freightliner tractor truck hauling a white Token reefer trailer.
Carreon told the agents that he was heading to Houston and was hauling tomatoes when asked, but agents noticed he began to stutter during questioning and “kept nervously glancing towards the rear of the trailer.”
Due to a K-9 alert, Carreon was referred to secondary inspection where agents opened the trailer to find 31 people laying on top of the boxes of tomatoes, of which all were determined to be illegally present in the country.
“Among the [31] individuals was a minor traveling by himself,” the complaint said.
Carreon refused to provide a statement without the presence of an attorney.
One Mexican woman told authorities that she feared for her life “due to seeing the news of deaths of the prior tractor-trailer smuggling in San Antonio.”
She had decided to move to Houston to help her daughter with her children after living in Brownsville for two years and added that she feared she’d never see her daughter again if the trailer were to roll over.
The woman and another man from Mexico both stated that they were not instructed on how to escape in the event of an emergency.
Carreon is set to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Julie K. Hampton Thursday morning in Corpus Christi federal court for a detention hearing.
