A criminal smuggling organization recruited a Texas man through Craigslist to transport migrants from Mexico into the United States, authorities who arrested him said this week.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said officers arrested Nathaniel Chavez, 42, as he drove a black Volkswagen Passat through Val Verde County with four Mexican immigrants toward Austin, Texas, one of whom was a minor. Chavez, who authorities say is from Spring, Texas, was charged with two counts of smuggling persons for financial benefit and one count of smuggling of a minor.
TEXAS INVESTIGATING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CAMPSITE FOUND 30 MILES NORTH OF MEXICO BORDER
Asked by police what he was doing, the suspect said he found the driving job on Craigslist, the online classifieds domain. Chavez’s expected compensation for the alleged smuggling operation was not immediately clear.
“Transportation gig available, payout same day and cash on delivery,” the Craigslist ad, posted on the Houston area site, read. The classified was brief, noting that “all you need is a vehicle” for the task at hand, and that “all vehicle types” were “wanted.”
Criminal smuggling organizations are now recruiting Americans on Craigslist to smuggle migrants in south Texas. Nathaniel Chavez was arrested by @TxDPS troopers for smuggling migrants, including a minor. Chavez will be charged with two counts of smuggling of persons for pecuniary… pic.twitter.com/ILGUtXk6QD
— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) April 14, 2023
“They’re being recruited off social media — whether it be Facebook, TikTok, Instagram — and they’re promised big money for very little work,” Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe told NewsNation of the new method for finding smugglers.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
As migrants continue to flood the U.S.-Mexico border, more Americans are being recruited to smuggle them into the country. Chavez’s arrest comes as border states struggle to respond to the crisis, and the legislative and executive branches remain unable to break the partisan bottleneck that has prevented any progress on major political issues, including immigration reform.
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels told House and Senate lawmakers on a Congressional delegation to the border and port of entry earlier this month that the border crisis was directly connected to rising crime in his community.
