Border Patrol agents at a Texas checkpoint found 60 people hiding in a refrigerated tractor-trailer on Saturday.
Agents assigned to the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint sent a truck for secondary inspection that morning after a K-9 alerted officers to the trailer, according to to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Authorities said that upon searching the trailer, which had been set to 49 degrees, they found 60 people inside.
“The doors of the trailer were secured with a padlock and the subjects had no means of escape,” a press release said.
Agents found 8 Honduras, 22 Guatemalans, 17 Mexicans, and 13 people from El Salvador inside the truck.
The driver, who is a Guatemalan citizen, was arrested at the scene, authorities said.
“Criminal activity like this will also lead to serious consequences for truck drivers who engage in smuggling,” said Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr. In a news release.
These refeers are continuous operation, or start and stop operation. The settings the driver chooses depends on the shippers requirements. We can set these units at a range from -20 degrees to 95 Fahrenheit.
Now, if this unit was set at a continuous 49, these people didn’t have too much longer to live. If it was set a start stop mode, meaning a 10 degree difference between start ups, they would have died as well, it just would have taken longer.
This is basically a huge refrigerator, imagine yourself stuck in a refrigerator at home and can’t get out. There is a big circulation going on inside these things, death traps. I don’t care what kind of blankets or whatever, unless it’s a moon suit, your dead.