DOUGLAS — A pickup truck dressed up to look like a federal vehicle led Border Patrol agents to 10 people hiding near a vacant lot in Douglas, the agency said Monday.
According to Border Patrol accounts reported by KOLD 13 News and KVOA, the truck displayed fictitious U.S. government license plates and U.S. Forest Service decals.
How agents spotted it
Personnel at the Douglas Station’s Tactical Operations Center, which monitors the border through cameras and other surveillance systems, noticed the pickup making a quick turnaround near the border. Agents followed it using surveillance technology and tried to pull it over.
The driver ran, abandoning the truck in an alley, KVOA reported. Agents then searched the area and found 10 people they said were in the country illegally hiding near a vacant lot. All 10 were taken to the Douglas Station for processing, and the vehicle will be processed for seizure.
Border Patrol’s accounts did not say whether the driver was caught, and the agency did not say exactly when the incident happened.
A familiar tactic
“Cloned” vehicles, made to resemble government, utility or commercial trucks, have turned up in Southern Arizona smuggling cases for years, because a vehicle that looks official may draw less attention. KVOA reported in 2022 on a cloned vehicle seized by agents in Douglas, and the Arizona Daily Star reported in 2014 that marijuana was found hidden in a fake wildlife service truck near Douglas.
Douglas sits across the border from Agua Prieta, Sonora, in Cochise County, and falls within Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, which covers most of Arizona’s border with Mexico.
People with information about smuggling activity can report it to Border Patrol’s tip line at 1-800-BE-ALERT.
Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons). File photo of border wall construction in the Naco–Douglas area, Sept. 9, 2020; not from this incident.