DPS: 17 immigrants found crammed inside fake Lowe's truck

DEL RIO, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A man was arrested for smuggling 17 illegal immigrants inside a cloned delivery truck, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced.

On Aug. 30, a Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper conducted a traffic stop on what they believed to be a Lowe's Home Improvement Store delivery truck on US-277, according to a news release from Texas DPS.

During the stop, the DPS trooper notices inconsistencies with the driver's travel itinerary. During their interaction, the trooper described the driver's behavior as "strange."

The driver, later identified as 28-year-old Cezanne Megel Patterson of Jacksonville Mississippi, gave consent to perform a search of the vehicle. The trooper went inside the trailer, where they found a false compartment in the truck's cargo area.

According to the release, they used breaching tools to open the compartment and found 17 illegal immigrants crammed inside a three-foot-wide space with no air ventilation.

The group of 17 included the following:

• four women
• 13 men from Columbia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico

All 17 of them were quickly removed from the compartment and several of them were treated for dehydration. The group was then referred to Border Patrol.

Patterson was arrested and charged with smuggling of persons with the likelihood of serious bodily injury or death. He was transported to the Val Verde Processing Center.