EFE.- The Highway Police of Florida He discovered eight undocumented migrants inside a van, when he stopped his driver for having the windows with tinted windows that are not allowed, local media reported.
The driver, Javier Palma-Jenaro, 40, was arrested and the eight migrants made available to immigration authorities, according to information from the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) about the event that occurred in Hernando County, west Florida.
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The truck, with plates from the state of Arizona, which borders Mexico, had stickers with the flag of USA in the windows.
According to police information, inside the back of the van there were fans and boxes of water and soft drinksas well as the eight migrants, whose identities and nationalities have not been revealed, all wore matching fluorescent yellow T-shirts.
When the patrolmen stopped him and asked for his documentation, Palma-Jenaro presented a Mexican passport and an expired driver’s license from the same country.
The Mexican is being held in the county jail. Hernando and faces charges for human traffickingin addition to several violations of traffic regulations.
The event gained more notoriety in light of the recent death of 53 migrants who were traveling crammed into a truck that appeared to be a refrigerated vehicle that was found abandoned in San Antonio, Texas.
The Florida Highway Patrol said in a statement that Palma-Jenaro confessed in an interrogation that he traveled from Milwaukee to Phoenix (Arizona) to look for the eight migrants, whom he had to take to a place in Fort Myers (southwest of Florida).
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The detainee, who had 3,700 dollars in his possession, told the patrolmen that he charged 250 dollars for each passenger.
Last Wednesday in Sumter, another Floridian county, patrol officers stopped the driver of a vehicle with an expired Texas license plate and a crack in the windshield.
Along with the driver, José Juárez, was a man who presented a Mexican passport without US entry stamps and was later confirmed to have been deported once.
Last Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court accepted a request from the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantisto create a statewide grand jury to deal specifically with human trafficking, including migrants and foreign children who arrive in the country unaccompanied.
DeSantisa conservative who aspires to be re-elected governor this year and, according to different sources, can compete with Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is an advocate of zero tolerance for irregular migration.
The Court ordered the creation “without delay” of this special jury, which will function in principle for twelve months and will be chaired by Judge Ellen S. Masters.
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It will be dedicated to investigating crimes, formulating accusations and carrying out all the other functions of those judicial bodies..