Truck driver arrested after dozens of illegal immigrants discovered in hot trailer

Border Patrol agents say that they discovered dozens of illegal immigrants in the trailer of a truck in Texas last week.

The discovery was made on September 17 on  Interstate Highway 35 (IH-35) north of Laredo, Texas, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol news release.

Authorities say that a tractor trailer that appeared to have a single occupant passed through the checkpoint. A canine unit alerted to the presence of concealed humans/narcotics and the semi truck was referred for a secondary inspection.

When agents looked inside the trailer, they discovered 53 people from Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras who were reportedly illegally inside the U.S.

Though the temperature inside the trailer was 105 degrees Fahrenheit, agents say that no one needed medical attention.

All 53 people inside the trailer and the truck driver, who is a U.S. citizen, were arrested and processed. The semi truck was seized by federal authorities.

This is not the first time that smuggling humans across the border in a hot trailer has made headlines.

In April 2018, Florida-based truck driver James Matthew Bradley Jr. was sentenced to life in prison after eight illegal immigrants in the trailer of his truck were discovered dead from heat related illness in a San Antonio Walmart parking lot in July 2017. Dozens of other people were taken to the hospital for treatment of illness and two more people eventually passed away in the hospital.