Print
Close
Indiana man arrested for alleged human smuggling after crashing car during high-speed chase in Texas
By Paul Best
Published October 11, 2022
An Indiana man accused of smuggling three migrants crashed his car during a high-speed chase in Uvalde County recently, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Richard Diaz, 21, allegedly told police that he was being paid $3,000 per person to smuggle the migrants from the border community of Eagle Pass to San Antonio.
He was charged with two counts of human smuggling causing serious bodily injury, Texas DPS spokesman Christopher Olivarez told Fox News Digital.
The driver sped off during an apparent traffic stop in Uvalde County, Texas. (Texas Department of Public Safety)
Dashcam footage shows the driver accelerate away from an apparent traffic stop at night. As the driver sped through what appears to be a residential area, his vehicle spun out of control and careened off the road into a pole.
One of the migrants suffered a severe head injury, according to Texas DPS. Two of the migrants were males from Mexico, while the third was a woman from Guatemala.
The driver's vehicle careened off the road and wrecked into a pole. (Texas Department of Public Safety)
Diaz told the responding officer after the wreck that he "panicked."
It's the latest incident of human smuggling to strike Uvalde, which like other communities near the U.S.-Mexico border, has been inundated with migrants in recent months.
One of the migrants suffered a severe head injury, according to Texas DPS. (Texas Department of Public Safety)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Last month, a 17-year-old girl who police say was "involved in human smuggling" crashed a vehicle in downtown Uvalde, leaving two people dead and 10 others injured.
"The nightmare of the border crisis, when will it end?" Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, previously told Fox News Digital. "The people of Uvalde have been through so much the past year-and-a-half. And these high speed chases have honestly been going on nonstop for almost two years now."
Fox News' Max Thornberry contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/indiana-man-arrested-alleged-human-smuggling-crashing-car-high-speed-chase-texas