A truck driver has pleaded guilty in a federal court to commercially transporting illegal aliens instead of carrots, which was the listed cargo in his manifest.
Rodney William Gipson drove into the Falfurrias Road Checkpoint from the Rio Grande Valley on the way to Houston in February.
A K-9 alerted Border Patrol officers to a suspicious scent in Gipson’s tractor-trailer, according to the complaint. Further inspection revealed that Gipson was transporting 24 illegal aliens.
Officers then found the truck’s cargo manifest, which stated that Gipson was transporting a load of carrots to a prison outside of Houston. Homeland Security agents contacted the prison and confirmed that the documents did not correspond to any legitimate order.
Gipson told officers after his arrest that this was his fourth load for a man named “Rene,” who had hired him to make deliveries. According to the complaint, Gipson stated that he did not hook up the trailer himself and only gave the manifest a cursory glance, which indicated that he was hauling 42,000 lbs of carrots.
Per court documents, he then admitted to the arresting officers that the trailer did not behave as if it were that heavy.
Officers arrested and questioned all 24 illegal aliens. Testimony outlined in the complaint showed that all the illegal aliens were of different nationalities and had no connection to each other.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, Gipson was permitted to remain free on bail pending his sentencing.
The trucker is facing up to five years in federal prison, along with a fine of up to $250,000.
This series of arrests was a part of Operation Take Back America, which is a national effort that utilizes all the available resources of the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to repel the invasion of illegal aliens as well as end the influence of transnational cartels within United States borders.
