1 in custody after 911 human smuggling call

The Associated Press reports that one person was in federal custody as an investigation continued into a 911 human trafficking call in Texas, federal officials said.  No other information could be provided, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement statement. 

State and federal authorities had been searching for a tractor-trailer in Texas that may be smuggling about 80 undocumented immigrants, and some of them may already be dead. It’s a desperate search for alleged victims of a human trafficking operation, trapped in the back of a tanker truck.

The 911 call is difficult to listen to and was one of several from someone alleging to be in the tanker. The caller said they were out of oxygen.

The comments are translated from Spanish:

“And so, it’s heartbreaking to hear because clearly behind the caller, in the background, you can hear others in the car, in the trailer and they’re, they’re also screaming for help in Spanish, and saying that they’re out of air,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said.

KJ