SAN ANTONIO – Disturbing 911 calls received by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office could be connected to a human smuggling operation, Sheriff Javier Salazar said.
“There could be 80 people out there. Any one of them or all of them could be very, very ill or even dead unfortunately,” Salazar said.
Salazar said the agency began receiving calls around 10 p.m. on Monday.
“The calls were bouncing off of cell towers. And so, it was right at the border of unincorporated Bexar County in San Antonio. And so, we were getting calls. I know the San Antonio Police Department was also getting calls around the same time. And all of us were scrambling around trying to find this truck and trailer,” Salazar said.
BCSO obtained surveillance video from a trucking company located near Interstate 35 and Fischer Road.
“The caller described that they were stationary on a highway. On the surveillance camera video, the truck is also stationary on the highway,” Salazar said.
The sheriff said there might be another clue that it may be a human smuggling operation.
“There seems to be a black pick up traveling in tandem with this 18-wheeler,” Salazar said.
In one of the calls, you can hear a man saying they are inside a white tanker truck and they stopped near the highway. The man said there were almost 80 people inside the tanker truck.
In another call, a man said they are dying, and you can hear a woman crying for help.
Salazar said BCSO is working closely with the Texas Department of Public Safety, Homeland Security Investigations and the San Antonio Police Department.
If you have any information that may help in the investigation, call BCSO at 210-335-6070.