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Border Patrol agents and the Roma Police Department on Saturday apprehended 20 people in the country illegally hidden inside a vacant apartment while taking the alleged smuggler into custody.
A criminal complaint against Julian Alberto Soto, a U.S. citizen born in 1980, said Border Patrol camera operators on Saturday spotted a group of people running north from the Rio Grande toward a gold minivan, which they all piled into.
Border Patrol camera operators maintained a visual of the vehicle as it drove to an apartment complex located at 2053 4th Street in Roma.
The minivan briefly stopped at the apartment complex before driving off, which is when Border Patrol agents conducted a traffic stop and encountered Soto, according to the complaint.
Roma police responded after a thorough search of the area didn’t turn up any signs of the group.
Locals in the area told Roma officers that two of the apartments at the complex were vacant. A search of one didn’t yield any results, but when a Roma officer looked through an open window into the other, they saw someone on the floor, according to the complaint.
Police made entry into that apartment and found 20 people who were illegally present in the country.
Soto told Border Patrol agents that he was in his friend’s living room and heard a lot of activity outside.
“Soto believed it was a smuggling activity because Soto said that is a daily thing in the area,” the complaint said.
He also said that he was in the minivan because his friend asked him to wash it, according to the complaint.
“Soto stated that he doesn’t know who the vehicle belongs to, but Soto believes his friend might have been involved in whatever happened to the van. Soto stated that he is currently on probation from another alien smuggling case,” the complaint stated. “Soto stated there is information on his phone from smuggling activity early in the week, but none from today.”
One of the people in the country illegally, however, identified Soto as the load driver, but would not initial a document saying so because they feared for their life.
Three of those apprehended told agents that the smugglers told them not to say anything to law enforcement and expressed fear.
Soto made a first appearance in McAllen federal court Monday morning in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Juan F. Alanis, who ordered him temporarily held without bond pending further court proceedings.
