By Adry Torres For Dailymail.com
Published: 17:54 EDT, 25 April 2022 | Updated: 17:55 EDT, 25 April 2022
This is the surreal moment 21 migrants were found concealed inside two wooden crates during a traffic stop in Texas.
The shocking findings took place April 6 when state troopers and U.S. Border Patrol agents pulled over a pickup truck and disrupted the human smuggling attempt in Laredo.
Footage released by the Texas Department of Public Safety showed the driver and a passenger being questioned, including one them who was already in handcuffs, before the state cops and border officers proceeded to inspect the cargo that was strapped to a flat bed.
A Texas state trooper used a metal bar to remove wood from one of the two crates that were used by smugglers to ferry 21 migrants through Laredo on April 6 after the cop and border officers stopped the driver of a pickup truck
The 21 migrants were divided into two wooden crates that were being transported in Laredo, Texas, by a driver with ties to a gang, the Texas Department of Public Safety said
Two wooden crates were loaded on a trailer hauled by a pickup truck that was pulled over on a road in Laredo, Texas, on April 6. A team of state troopers working with U.S. Border Patrol officers assigned to Laredo Sector discovered 21 migrants concealed in the crates
A cellphone video recorded by a cop or border agent agent that was uploaded to social media showed a police office removing a wooden board used as the top cover for the crate while border agents continued to remove the screws with their drills.
They were able to remove the cover of one of the crates with a drill before discovering the migrants sitting side-by-side.
Two suspects were taken into custody by state troopers and border patrol agents on April 6 during smuggling incident in Laredo, Texas, that ended with the discovery of 21 migrants concealed in two wooden crates. According to the Texas Department of Pubic Safety, one of the two suspects was a member of a gang
One of the individuals could be heard asking for water in Spanish.
'We’ll give you water later,' a border officer or state police officer replied.
The driver and passenger were taken into custody on human smuggling charges.
DailyMail.com reached out to the Texas Department of Pubic Safety for comment.
Texas state troopers and U.S. Border Patrol agents disrupted a smuggling attempt on April 6 in Laredo and found 21 migrants in two large wooden crates
According to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection monthly southwestern border report, U.S. Border Patrol officers saw a 33 percent spike in interdictions with migrants along the border last month, to 221,803 encounters, after 164,973 were reported in February.
The totals for March also marked the highest amount of interdictions under the administration of President Joe Biden since July 2021 when 213,593 interdictions were made.
Since October 1, 2001 - the beginning of fiscal year 2022 - border officers have recorded 1,060,954 incidents with migrants. CBP documented 164,847 interdictions in October; 174,846 in November; and closed out December with 179,252 incidents.
Encounters tailed off in January when 154,812 were reported before spiking up to 165,894 in February.
The current fiscal year totals are expected to surpass those of fiscal year 2021 when 1,734,686 interdictions were made.
The agency is expecting to perhaps see up to 500,000 encounters a month as the Biden administration is set to rescind Title 42 - a Trump-era law designed to immediately expel migrants to protect the United States from COVID-19.
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