OPD nabs 9 in suspected trafficking on E. Main St.

Olney police arrested a Colorado man for human trafficking and took eight other people into custody during a traffic stop on East Main Street on Nov. 15, police said. The latest detention by local police of a carload of allegedly undocumented people came as Texas lawmakers consider a bill that makes it a state misdemeanor to illegally cross the southern U.S. border into Texas and empowers peace officers to arrest undocumented immigrants.

The bill, by Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, has passed the Texas House and has drawn criticism from opponents who say it imfringes on federal authority.

On Nov. 15 at approximately 12:09 a.m., Olney Police Cpl. Miranda Wright stopped a vehicle for speeding in the 200 block of East Main St (State Hwy 114) with support from Young County Sheriff ’s deputies, police said.

The driver, Yostin Gonzalez Chanax, 24, of Colorado, provided false information about his identity, police said. Cpl. Wright and Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck took statements from the other eight occupants of the vehicle and learned that “the individuals or their families had paid substantial sums to a criminal organization to facilitate their entry into the United States,” police said.

Chief Birbeck and Cpl. Wright determined that several thousand dollars in cash found in the vehicle “were allocated for transportation and housing, facilitating both illegal entry into the country and subsequent transportation to various destinations within the United States,” police said. The operation spanned multiple locations across the country, police said.

U.S. Border Patrol issued a detainer for the vehicle’s occupants, while Mr. Gonzalez Chanax, the driver, was arrested and charged with multiple offenses, including smuggling of persons, police said.