LAREDO – The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), during Operation Lone Star, located 28 illegal immigrants concealed inside a commercial vehicle after a Highway Patrol Trooper conducted a traffic stop in Webb County.
On Jan. 11, 2022, just after 5 p.m., the Trooper conducted a traffic stop on a white tractor-trailer on Interstate 35 near mile marker 30 in Laredo. Once the vehicle came to a stop, the driver immediately fled on foot into a brushy area. The Trooper conducted a search of the vehicle and found 28 illegal immigrants inside the sleeper cab. The driver, Dartavious Raytrell Dixon, 24, of Houston, was later apprehended and charged with 28 felony counts of human smuggling and evading arrest. Dixon was transported to the Webb County Jail.
The 28 illegal immigrants consisted of 21 adult males, six adult females and one juvenile male from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. All were referred to U.S. Border Patrol. The DPS Criminal Investigations Division is investigating.
### (DPS South Texas Region)