Police in Florida say that two vans packed with 26 Chinese migrants were stopped on Tuesday morning while two alleged smugglers were arrested, Fox News Digital has learned.
The event happened in Coral Gables, a city close to Miami, more than a week after over 30 migrants were caught there while traveling in vans.
Today, Detective Khaled Tahah from the Coral Gables Police Department said that a watchful citizen called the police around 8 a.m. to report possible Chinese migrants being carried in passenger vans.
“Our teams went to the area and found both vans.” Traffic stops were performed on each van, leading to the discovery of 26 people who seem to be Chinese refugees.
Taha said that there are both men and women in the cars. The two suspected smugglers are men.
One van was stopped at 11600 Old Cutler Road, and the other was stopped at the 8800 block of Old Cutler Road in Kendall, he said.
Many people were sitting by the road while the cops were doing the stop, according to WSVN. They were then put on county trolleys and taken to a secret site, according to the news source.
The Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Customs and Border Patrol have arrived at the scene and are now in charge of the investigation, according to Tahah.
Fox News Digital asked both agencies for more details but hasn’t heard back yet.
On Tuesday, an event happened a week after over 30 migrants, mostly from China, were discovered in a Toyota and a U-Haul truck in Coral Gables. This was after someone reported a possible kidnapping.
That event took place on Jan. 17, after a security guard for a homeowners association reported seeing an abduction around 9:35 a.m., Coral Gables Police Chief Edward James Hudak Jr. told reporters.
Officers stopped the cars and rescued the woman who was reportedly kidnapped from the Toyota. Officers started looking into a U-Haul truck that had 16 Chinese women, 15 Chinese men, one man from Cuba, and one woman from Ecuador, according to the cops.
The police said that along with the migrants in the Toyota, there was a Cuban guy, a Brazilian woman, and a man from Ecuador.
Investigators were trying to find out if the woman who might have been kidnapped was trying to get away from the people who were possibly smuggling her. The Coral Gables Fire Department helped the migrants, who were “tired” but otherwise healthy, according to the cops.
The refugees were given to the U.S. Border Patrol, and four other people were arrested in connection with the situation.
The number of Chinese people seen at the border has grown significantly since 2021. In the 2022 fiscal year, there were 1,970 encounters. In 2023, that number increased to over 24,000, and by April 2024, there were more than 24,200 encounters reported for the 2024 fiscal year.