HARLINGEN, Texas (Border Report) — A Mississippi man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for human trafficking and smuggling migrants using a fake store delivery truck in South Texas, Texas Department of Public Safety officials said Wednesday.
Cezanne Megel Patterson, 29, of Jackson, Mississippi, was sentenced Thursday in the case that went viral last fall due to a video circulated by DPS.
Patterson was arrested Aug. 30 in Kinney County outside the South Texas border town of Del Rio on a highway where he was driving what appeared to be a Lowe’s Home Improvement Store delivery truck. Troopers say they found 17 migrants crammed inside a 3-foot-wide false compartment area with no air ventilation.
He was charged with smuggling of persons with the likelihood of serious bodily injury or death.
The case was subject to enhanced penalties under human smuggling laws signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in 2023.
“Patterson’s case is the perfect example of the dangerous lengths smugglers will go to when risking human lives for profit,” DPS South Texas Region Chief Arturo Dela Garza said. “Human smuggling is a serious crime, and I am proud of the collaborative work between our State Troopers and local prosecutors to hold smugglers, like Patterson, accountable.”
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
Read: Read More