GREENVILLE — An officer with the Greenville Police Department made an arrest early Thursday morning in an alleged human trafficking operation, in which several illegal aliens were stacked in the back of a sport utility vehicle.
Greenville Police Chief Harold Roseberry said the details of the incident were still being sorted out Thursday evening, including exactly how many of the people taken into custody were in the United States illegally.
“All of them are in jail,” Roseberry said, noting those who will be found to be illegal aliens will be handed over to ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). “Not all of them are from Mexico, from what we hear. They all have a hold on them right now.”
According to a release from the police department, at approximately 2:45 a.m. Thursday, Officer Robert Pemberton observed a 2003 Nissan Xterra, with California license plates, failing to slow for an emergency vehicle. Pemberton conducted a traffic stop of the vehicle and noticed a strong smell of body odor as he approached. Pemberton looked inside and counted nine people, some lying on top of each other in the back of the vehicle.
The driver of the vehicle, Marcos Hernandez Carlos Aroldo, 31, did not have a driver's license and told Pemberton the occupants of the vehicle were traveling to Kansas to look for work. Aroldo did not know the names of anyone in the vehicle but indicated the front-seat passenger was the owner of the vehicle.
Pemberton contacted the front seat passenger who was identified as Victor Manuel Hernandez, 30. Hernandez advised he was paid $1,100 to transport the individuals in the back of the vehicle to Little Rock, Ark., where he was going to drop them off and then drive back to California. Pemberton did locate eleven one hundred dollar bills in Hernandez's pants packet.
The individuals inside the vehicle had no possessions other than the clothing they were wearing and none of them were wearing seat belts. They told Pemberton they were very hungry.
All of the vehicle occupants were placed under arrest and transported to the Greenville Police Department. Hernandez was charged with trafficking of persons and was later transferred to the custody of the Hunt County Jail. The vehicle, money and a cell phone were seized.
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Arrest made in alleged human trafficking
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