A criminal complaint says that a man from Kansas was stopped at the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint after officers found 24 people illegally in the country, including a 4-year-old boy, in a 35-degree trailer that was kept cool.
Robert Monkel was charged with moving people who were in the United States illegally and without caring.
Around 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, Border Patrol agents at the Falfurrias checkpoint saw a tractor-trailer coming up to the main inspection lane.
The complaint says that Monkel had the manifest in his hand and was quickly reading what was written on it, which is a typical way for organizations that smuggle people to get through inspections faster.
Agents used a K-9 unit to do a free air sniff of the tractor-trailer without getting in the way. This led to an alert, and Monkel was sent to a secondary check.
The plastic seal on the doors was cut, and 24 people, including the 4-year-old boy and his mother, were found hiding on top of boxes of food.
All of them were found to be in the U.S. illegally. They were from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, among other places.
The complaint said, “[One agent] wrote down that he saw ice on the produce pallets and that the temperature in the reefer was set at 35 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Monkel and the other 24 people were taken into custody.
When officers searched the truck, they found a handgun and bullets in a bag in the sleeper. When it was found, the gun wasn’t loaded.
Special officers from Homeland Security Investigations looked into the tractor-trailer and found that this was the first time in two years that the truck had come to the checkpoint.
The record also showed that the food was picked up on Nov. 6 at USA Mex Cold Solutions LLC in McAllen.
When agents called the shipping manager, they said that they gave all the seals to the driver after loading the goods and that based on the video security footage of them loading the trailer, only the goods were put in it.
It was also said in the complaint that the shipping manager gave HSI a copy of the surveillance video.
A check of Monkel’s records showed that he had crossed the Progresso port of entry on November 3 and 5.
One of the people who was found inside the trailer told the police that the tractor’s driver was a Hispanic man who told him and other people to get inside the trailer and climb a ladder to get to the food.
Someone else said they were taken to a warehouse for fruits and vegetables and then put on the van. He said it was dark and he couldn’t see, but that other people had been there before him.
The person later changed what he said, saying that he never said he was loaded at a produce warehouse but rather that he was loaded into the trailer near a house, according to the lawsuit.
Monkel asked for a lawyer and didn’t comment.
His first court appearance is set for Tuesday morning in Corpus Christi federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jason B. Libby.
Source: Kansas man arrested after Border Patrol finds 24 people inside cold trailer
