Two men charged for smuggling 55 migrants from Mission

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Two men were charged with smuggling dozens of migrants through the Rio Grande Valley.

Brandon Lajohn Hargrove, 43, of Houston, and Jose Luis Castellanos-Hercules, 21, from Honduras, were charged with transporting migrants from Mission and Zapata in a box truck.

On Sept. 19, authorities stopped the box truck, driven by Hargrove, west of Zapata near San Ygnacio.

Hargrove told authorities he was hauling boxes of produce and opened the back of the truck.

During the interaction, authorities saw Castellanos-Hercules in the trailer and conducted a more thorough search.

While searching in the trailer, authorities found a hidden compartment that held 55 migrants from Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, China, India, Colombia, and Ecuador.

Three of the migrants found in the hidden compartment were younger than 17 years old.

According to the release, the migrants had to crawl through a small door to escape the false wall, and multiple heavy pallets blocked the access door, which prevented the migrants from leaving on their own.

The release adds that Hargrove picked up the migrants from the stash house in Mission, where authorities had previously marked it as used for smuggling activity.

Hargrove and Castellanos-Hercules are scheduled for a detention hearing at 1 p.m. on Sept. 25 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Hacker.

Both men face a maximum of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

Several migrants who were in the truck are also facing charges for illegal entry and illegal reentry.