By Steve Neavling
Something wasn’t quite right about the U.S. Border Patrol truck that was crossing into California from Mexico over the weekend.
Mexican authorities stopped the Ford F-150, outfitted with decal stickers replicating the official CBP trucks, and found 17 migrants who were exposed to high temperatures inside, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
The tactic wasn’t unusual, said David Pérez Tejada, a delegate of the National Migration Institute in Baja California.
“This is another modus operandi used by criminal groups of polleros and coyotes (people or groups who cross people illegally to the U.S.), who are labeling pick-ups on the Mexican side as if they were U.S. patrol vehicles,” he said.
“Under false pretenses they tell people to ‘get inside’ … ‘it’s all arranged,’ ‘it’s a U.S. patrol, they won’t tell you anything when you cross,’” he added.
In 2021, Homeland Security and Border Patrol agents spotted a fake CBP vehicle carrying 10 migrants.
Eight years ago, Border Patrol agents came across a cloned CBP SUV and found 12 people stuffed inside.
In a statement, a Border Patrol spokesperson said that “transnational criminal organizations profit by going to great lengths to smuggle people and contraband into the United States.”
“Impersonating a law enforcement official is both reckless and illegal and is just one example of the smuggling tactics used by criminal enterprises. CBP law enforcement personnel are aware of the tactic and remain vigilant for this type of illegal activity,” the statement read.
