Federal, state and local authorities in Texas are looking for a tanker truck days after a person who called 911 in the San Antonio area reported that dozens of people were trapped in it, offering a glimpse of the difficulties that authorities face in the investigation trafficking in persons.
In the recording of Monday’s emergency call obtained by The Associated Press, a man can be heard begging for help. The interlocutor says that there are about 80 people inside the truck’s tank – normally used to transport liquids or gases that can be dangerous – and who cannot breathe.
“We are dying here,” said the interlocutor in Spanish, telling a dispatcher that the white tanker truck was parked and that he could hear cars passing by. People can be heard panting and screaming in the background. Then the call was dropped.
Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, told the AP on Thursday that all he wants now is to find out if people survived the trip and reached their final destination. Salazar said he has no interest in prosecuting the people inside the tank, because they are victims. But he wants to hold those who arrested them responsible.
“This is the kind of thing that makes you lose sleep at the first appointment,” said Salazar. “Are you asking yourself ‘are there people who have been evicted in our municipality and are just waiting to be found?'”
The San Antonio police are also investigating, but declined to comment, saying they gave the information received to the federal Department of Homeland Security.
A Homeland Security spokesman said in a statement that his investigations division is “investigating an incident together with local law enforcement partners about a possible smuggling event” and that no other details could be released.
Salazar said one of his delegates was able to locate images from surveillance cameras at a company where the call was traced. The company – along Interstate 35, which extends southwest from San Antonio to the border with Mexico – is not involved in the criminal investigation, said Salazar, but provided the video.
The surveillance footage shows a tanker truck that matches the description of the interlocutor traveling with a black truck. Both stop at the shoulder at around midnight and a person can be seen walking between vehicles. Salazar said he is confident that these are the vehicles in question, but has no specifications on the make or model.
Trafficking cases occur thousands of times a day across the country, said Salazar, and traffickers “herd these people like cattle”.
“The only difference is that, in this case, we were able to take a look at why this man managed to make a call,” said Salazar.
In 2017, nine people died and 20 were hospitalized in dire conditions, many with extreme dehydration and heat stroke, after being huddled in a suffocating trailer found parked in front of a Walmart in San Antonio. The driver was arrested and authorities at the time called the case of an attempted smuggling of immigrants that went wrong.
“We are facing a crime of human trafficking,” said San Antonio police chief William McManus after the 2017 discovery, calling the situation “a horrible tragedy”.
Salazar asks anyone who may have seen the incident after 10:00 pm on Monday or recorded on the panel camera to report.