Several men were taken into custody and questioned by U.S. Border Patrol agents after their van was stopped for speeding by a state trooper on Interstate 295 in Gardiner.
The trooper pulled the van over for speeding around 7:36 a.m., Shannon Moss, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said in a news release.
Ruben Huazco, 23, of Milford, Massachusetts, was driving the white GMC work van. During the traffic stop, the trooper noticed someone lying on the floor behind the driver’s seat and there was a passenger in the front seat as well. When the trooper opened the van’s side door, he spotted six men lying down in the back. None were properly seat belted.
The trooper notified the U.S. Border Patrol after several of the occupants were unable to produce identification, Moss said.
Five of the van’s occupants, including Huazco, were taken into custody for being non-citizens without proper documents. Other passengers who had or were in the process of getting permanent resident cards were transported to the Gardiner Service Plaza, where they made transportation arrangements.
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