LAREDO — The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Criminal Investigations Division (CID), during Operation Lone Star, located 100 illegal immigrants in a tractor trailer after a DPS Special Agent observed criminal activity involving the commercial vehicle in Webb County.
On Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, around 7 p.m., a DPS Special Agent observed several vehicles being escorted and then unloading suspected illegal immigrants, who were then transferred into a parked semi-trailer in Laredo. Special Agents and Highway Patrol Troopers approached the trailer and discovered 100 illegal migrants inside. The trailer did not have any type of ventilation and the doors were closed from the outside, preventing them from exiting. The group consisted of 82 males and 18 females from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
In addition to the semi-trailer, a DPS Trooper stopped a Dodge passenger car. The driver, Paulino Diaz Jr., 17, of Laredo, was arrested for smuggling of persons.
DPS CID is still investigating.
### (DPS South Texas Region)