(The Center Square) – Officers working through Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star, continue to pursue human smugglers at the border, stopping them by air and after several day manhunts through the brush in tough terrain. They are also continuing to arrest violent gang members.

In one recent air interdiction effort, Texas Department of Public Safety Aircraft Operations Division pilots intercepted a plane being used to allegedly smuggle foreign nationals after they illegally entered the state.

DPS pilots first noticed suspicious activity with a plane around Kingsville, Texas. They then intercepted it when it landed further south near Port Isabel at the Texas-Mexico border. Eight illegal foreign nationals from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico were apprehended and referred to Border Patrol.

In another operation, Texas National Guard soldiers assisted law enforcement with night vision technology and advanced optical equipment to track a group of single military age men who’d illegally entered the country. After a three-day manhunt across tough terrain in a large rural area, they tracked and captured them hiding under a bridge.

In the Rio Grande Valley, a Texas DPS Brush Team working an anti-smuggling operation with Border Patrol agents arrested three smugglers in Sullivan City in Hidalgo County. The guide, a Mexican national illegally in the country, was working with two local teenagers to smuggle foreign nationals and avoid detection by law enforcement. They failed.

OLS officers apprehended the coyote, or smuggling guide, a 40-year-old Mexican national and confirmed Paisa gang member, his alleged coconspirators and those being smuggled. The coyote allegedly guided four foreign nationals across the Rio Grande River into Hidalgo County, where they were supposed to meet two local teenagers to drive them to their next location. The local 17- and 16-year-olds were known for their involvement in human smuggling. Troopers disrupted their efforts and arrested all three alleged smugglers. The 16-year-old was jailed separately at a juvenile detention center; four illegal foreign nationals were turned over to Border Patrol.

If they hadn’t been caught, the foreign nationals would be among at least two million gotaways who illegally entered the country to evade capture. Gotaways don’t make immigration or asylum claims, don’t enter at ports of entry, don’t turn back to Mexico, and many are believed to be involved in criminal activity, law enforcement officials have told The Center Square.

In another incident, Texas DPS officers in El Paso arrested a Venezuelan Tren De Aragua gang member already known to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as an alleged human smuggler. ICE had already arrested and released him just a few days before DPS arrested him. He was wearing an ICE tracking device.

The Venezuelan, illegally in the country, is believed to be a scout, one who looks out for where law enforcement is and communicates their location with coyotes in order to move smuggling operations to avoid being caught. In this instance, he was on the lookout for a 17-year-old driver who had three foreign nationals hiding in his vehicle. DPS arrested the two alleged smugglers, the foreign nationals were handed over to Border Patrol.

In another operation, a Texas DPS Brush Team tracked and found two separate groups totaling 10 illegal foreign nationals trespassing on a private ranch in Maverick County. They were citizens of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. If they hadn’t been arrested and jailed for criminal trespass, they’d also be considered gotaways.

Texas has borne the brunt of criminal activity stemming from the border. Since March 2021, OLS officers have apprehended more than 517,000 illegal foreign nationals and made more than 45,700 criminal arrests, with more than 39,600 felony charges reported.

They’ve also seized more than 506 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill the combined populations of the United States and Mexico.