The alleged human smugglers led authorities in a high-speed chase that ended in a fatal crash Thursday in the very city of Texas where the famous migrant death truck passed through an early immigration checkpoint. of the week.
A vehicle believed to be carrying migrants was being chased by Border Patrol officers when it went out of control and crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer in Encinal, KHOU television station 11 reported.
Four people were killed and three were injured in the collision near Love’s truck stop on Route 44, Encinal police said.
Encinal police officers who responded to a request for Border Patrol assistance saw the “suspicious vehicle” leave I-35 and collide with the tractor-trailer, which was not moving, say Police Chief Pablo Balboa III in a prepared statement.
A photo posted online by KHOU appeared to show a shattered white Jeep among the wreckage.
The driver who was speeding among the dead and injured were airlifted to local hospitals, police said.
The vehicle crashed into a tractor-trailer parked near a gas station. Twitter / @ TxDPSSouth Border Patrol agents were chasing a vehicle allegedly carrying migrants until it crashed into a tractor-trailer in Encinal, Texas.KHOU
On Monday, a truck carrying 64 migrants in its suffocating trailer passed control of the Border Patrol in Encinal, with a surveillance camera that allegedly caught Homero Zamorano, 45, smiling as he leaned against the driver’s window.
That truck was later abandoned in a remote area of San Antonio, with authorities finding “piles of bodies” inside and a total of 48 dead.
The death toll now stands at 53 of the 64 migrants who were packed into the trailer, and Zamorano, who is said to have had “a lot of methamphetamine” when he was caught nearby, faces a federal traffic charge. people that could result in the death penalty.
Police have confirmed the driver of the car died in the crash. KHOU It is not known if the victims of the accident were migrants.KHOU
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has repeatedly blamed President Biden for the horrific incident, saying Wednesday the trailer was not inspected in Encinal “because the Border Patrol does not have the resources to inspect all trucks and as a result , the Border Patrol did. they don’t have the ability to save these lives. “
Abbott also said he would “immediately” establish new state checkpoints to inspect trucks for migrant trafficking operations and deploy two “attack teams” to roam the roads in search of trucks carrying migrants and search the smugglers’ “storage houses.”