Texas police pull over Mexican teen allegedly smuggling migrants
Seven migrants bailed out a vehicle being driven by a Mexican teen after a high-speed chase in Mission, Texas, according to police. CREDIT: Texas Department of Public Safety
Kinney County, Texas, deputies arrested two men and two women on Tuesday night for human smuggling, with one suspect allegedly punching himself in the face and claiming an immigrant hit him and forced him to drive them.
The Kinney County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook that deputies saw two vehicles stopped on Route 334.
Blake Edward Speaker and Kaden Douglas Rouse were arrested for human smuggling in Kinney County, Texas (Kinney County Sheriff's Office)
When deputies approached the vehicles, they saw a group of siblings and girlfriends in the vehicles, along with eight illegal foreign nationals.
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Blake Edward Speaker of Willis, Texas, deputies said, punched himself in the face, claiming the illegal immigrant passengers in the back of his vehicle assaulted him and forced him to drive the group of foreigners.
Deputies said Kaden Douglas Rouse of Conroe was sitting in the front passenger seat, and both face eight counts of human smuggling.
Kinney County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested two men for smuggling eight immigrants into the U.S. (Kinney County Sheriff's Office)
In the other vehicle were a sister and a girlfriend of the two men, who deputies accused of acting as "scout" drivers looking for law enforcement officers.
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Spring, Texas residents Brooklyn Elizabeth Speaker and Karly Jane Peirce were in the second vehicle and face charges.
The Kinney County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to inquiries about the arrests.
The arrests come just days after Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe testified before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security at a field hearing on border security in Pharr, Texas.
Last year, Coe said, his deputies apprehended 741 human smugglers and filed over 3,000 felony cases against the smugglers.
During his testimony, Coe told Congress his county is "under siege" by illegal aliens and smugglers going through the county and trying to get to other destinations across the U.S.
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