OPD stops migrants on SH 114

Olney police arrested a Guatemalan man who said he was paid to drive four undocumented workers from Los Angeles to the Dallas-Fort Worth area on a route that took them down Main Street, an increasingly frequent route for human trafficking.

Olney Cpl. Miranda Wright pulled over the 2012 Honda Pilot in the 500 block of West Main Street with no front license plate at about 8:20 p.m. on Sept. 24.

The driver, Elmer Larios Chacon, 40, had no driver’s license and the vehicle’s registration was expired, Cpl. Wright learned when she pulled him over.

She clocked three passengers in the Pilot’s passenger and back seats, and later dis- covered a fourth man sleeping in the third row of seats, she said. The driver and passengers, all of whom spoke mainly Spanish, did not appear to know each other’s names, Cpl. Wright said.

She removed the driver and passengers from the vehicle and questioned them separately. All said they had been working in New Mexico in construction and they were heading back to Houston, she said.

“Nobody can tell me each other’s names,” she said. “A couple could tell me the driver’s name.” Two of the men had expired visas, she said. Mr. Chacon consented to a search of the vehicle, and Cpl. Wright found multiple traffic citations from other states inside the vehicle.

She contacted the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to detain the four undocumented men, and arrested Mr. Chacon for driving without a license, registration, or insurance and no front license plate, she said. The vehicle was towed and all five men were brought to the Young County Jail, where they were interviewed by Cpl. Wright and Olney Police Sgt. Dustin Hudson.

Mr. Chacon, a Guatemalan citizen living in the Houston area, said he had been paid to drive the men from Los Angeles to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He had provided the men with the false story about working construction in New Mexico, Cpl. Wright said.

The other men, Cristian Oliva Cabrera, 20, Darwin Peralta Pineda, 39, Alberto Gaspar 24, Alfredo Hernandez Moya, 25, were detained by federal immigration officials.