U.S. Customs and Border Patrol
Arrests have been made in the Houston stash house case where 97 illegal immigrants were found. Five people were taken into custody and charged with federal crimes related to the discovery of a stash house used by human traffickers Friday. A criminal complaint was filed on Saturday. All five people charged in this case are illegal immigrants themselves.
A Houston Police Department (HPD) SWAT team raided the house Friday after a woman in Dallas called HPD to report that her brother had been kidnapped. Francis Martinez told HPD that she paid smugglers $11,000 in February to bring her brother, Santos Vaquedano, from Honduras to the United States. Thursday Martinez received a call from the human traffickers who instructed her to drive to Houston and meet them at a Walgreens parking lot. She was also told she would have to pay them another $6,300 for her brother’s release. As she drove to Houston, a woman called and put her brother on the phone. Martinez
90+ migrants found in suspected smuggling ring in Texas
Paramedics transport a man into an ambulance from the scene of a human smuggling case, where more than 90 undocumented immigrants were found inside a home on the 12200 block of Chessington Drive, Friday, April 30, 2021, in Houston. A Houston Police official said the case will be handled by federal authorities and that some of the people inside the house were exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms. ( Godofredo A. Vásquez/Houston Chronicle via AP)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 11:40 AM PT – Saturday, May 1, 2021
A neighborhood in Texas was left in shock after law enforcement agencies discovered a human smuggling operation inside a home. According to the Houston Police Department on Friday, officers had received reports of a kidnapping the night before and they were working around-the-clock to locate a potential address.