Texas man pleads guilty to smuggling 119 illegal immigrants in refrigerated trailer

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Meth floods across U.S.-Mexico border amid coronavirus pandemic

Officers say meth seizures have nearly doubled this year compared to 2019. High demand in the U.S. and closed borders have increased the prevalence and price tag. Officers say criminals are getting more creative in the ways they smuggle drugs across and fear the problem will only get worse.

A Houston, Texas man pleaded guilty to smuggling nearly 120 illegal immigrants into the United States in a refrigerated trailer across the southern border.

On Wednesday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced that Broderick Keith Rhodes, 32, gave a guilty plea for smuggling 119 undocumented migrants into the US on January 12, 2021. 

Rhodes claimed to Border Patrol authorities at a checkpoint in Freer, Texas that he worked for a company in La Porte, Texas and was simply delivering lettuce. However, the bill of lading he presented to authorities raised eyebrows because it listed a delivery from Laredo, Texas to Sugar Land, Texas.

Border Patrol agents noted that Rhodes appeared nervous and that the trailer he was hauling registered an internal temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit despite being set to 30 degrees.

HERE’S HOW A MEXICAN CARTEL SMUGGLED 1100 POUNDS OF METH INTO MIAMI, ACCORDING TO COURT DOCUMENTS

On a second inspection, the agents opened up the trailer to find 119 illegal immigrants inside.

The business that Rhodes claimed to be an employee of told the US Attorney’s office that he had never worked there and that the company does not deliver outside of the Houston-area. The other companies did not have records of the shipment, according to the US Attorney’s announcement.

Rhodes faces up to a decade in prison and a fine of up to a quarter of a million dollars.

Rep. Vincente Gonzalez, D-Texas, — who represents Freer, Texas in Congress — did not immediately return Fox News’ request for comment.

The southern border has seen a lot of action in recent months.

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The U.S. Attorney’s office for the southern district of Florida announced last week that alleged United Cartel leader Adalberto Fructuoso Comparan-Rodriguez — also known as "Fruto" — was arrested in Guatemala on request from the U.S. along with Alfonso Rustrian as a co-conspirator to a plot that saw 1,100 pounds of methamphetamine smuggled into Miami.

Compraran-Rodriguez, Rustrian, Compraran-Rodriguez’s son and three other foreign nationals were also arrested and charged for the crime. They had allegedly made the meth "undetectable" by concealing it "inside different materials" such as house paint, according to court documents.