FHP: Human smuggler caught taking Hondurans to Tampa Bay area

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Florida Highway Patrol caught a person attempting to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the Tampa Bay area Monday.

A report from the FHP said that a trooper spotted a blue van heading south on I-75 with tints on the rear windows and some side windows that were darker than the legal limit. Its front windshield was also cracked.

The report said the trooper stopped the vehicle in Sumter County and spoke with the driver, Abraham Rodriguez Chazaro, who presented an expired Ohio driver’s license.

While speaking with the driver, the trooper noticed several passengers hiding within the van’s rear bench seats.

The FHP said the van’s three passengers, including a father and his 11-year-old son, were all Honduran citizens with no legal documents showing that they had proper access to the United States.

Rodriguez Chazaro told troopers that they were traveling from Ohio to a location “about an hour south of Tampa.” The driver said the father and son had relatives in the Tampa area and were paying for the gas.

The FHP detained Rodriguez Chazaro for driving without a valid driver’s license. A search of his belongings found $1,100 in cash.

U.S. Border Patrol agents informed troopers that Rodriguez Chazaro was a Mexican citizen who was in the United States on a work visa that was to expire in two days. The agents also confirmed that the Hondurans were all in the U.S. illegally.

Rodriguez Chazaro was booked on multiple charges for human trafficking and smuggling.

This instance of human smuggling came the same day Gov. Ron DeSantis warned of an increase in smugglers and human trafficking, placing the blame on the lax immigration policies of the Biden Administration.

Sumter County was also the site of a chain of human smuggling arrests back in the fall of 2021. In one instance, troopers caught a man trying to take four migrants to the Tampa area.

Typically, these smuggling arrests occurred because of troopers spotting relatively minor violations that brought the undocumented migrants to their attention, according to the FHP.