Texas DPS: 17 migrants found in fake Lowe’s truck, driver arrested

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) may have just prevented a mass casualty smuggling event in Kinney County.

Video footage from the agency shows 13 men and four women being found inside a cloned truck, or one that is designed to look like a legitimate commercial delivery truck. In this case, investigators say the inside of the truck was reconfigured to hide people.

DPS says this human smuggling attempt could have ended up similar to another attempt in 2022 when 53 illegal immigrants were found dead inside a tractor trailer in San Antonio.

KSAT-12 reports the driver, Megel Patterson, 28, from Jackson Mississippi, was arrested and charged with human smuggling causing serious bodily injury.

The people found inside the truck were handed over to U.S. Border Patrol on Friday.