Recent drone footage from the Texas Department of Public Safety Drones has captured a teenage Mexican migrant helping fellow migrants enter the U.S. from Mexico via a water raft and climbing ladder.
In the surveillance footage, a 17-year-old Mexican citizen can be seen leading other migrants onto a raft to cross the Rio Grande River, which separates Texas from Mexico, equipped with a folding ladder to help the migrants scale the border wall once ashore. The footage was captured near the city of McAllen, Texas, in which the teenage trafficker can be seen approaching the Rio Grande River.
It has been stated that the 17-year-old trafficker is a part of one of the many Mexican cartel criminal organizations, which collect funds in exchange for helping fleeing migrants escape into America. The footage then shows the teenage guide placing a black water raft into the river for the migrants. Some of the migrants seen in the video entering the raft can be seen equipped with the said climbing ladder, to use once they reach the border wall. While the footage is slightly obscured by surrounding vegetation, the raft can then be seen heading across the river to the American side.
Once the raft had reached dry land, the migrants could be seen quickly running to the border wall, carrying the ladder before propping it against the wall to scale. In most places of the U.S.-Mexican border wall, the wall itself can range from anywhere of 19 to 30 feet high. However, once the teenage smuggler and the other five migrants he helped escape had reached America, they were swiftly apprehended by border patrol authorities and taken into custody. The arrest was confirmed this past Thursday by Lt. Chris Olivarez of the Texas DPS.
Olivarez further stated that Texas’ DPS Aerial System is critical to the border patrol systems by providing aerial support and situational awareness regarding migration crises.
