FHP continues with human smuggling arrests in Sumter County FL, the most recent on Nov. 16
At 2:25 pm on November 16, a Floida Highway Patrol trooper patrolling Interstate 75 - near Milepost 311 near Bushnell in Sumter County, Florida - conducted a traffic stop on a Dodge Journey sports uility vehicle due to the vehicle having illegal window tint and failing to maintain its lane of travel.
The trooper learned that the driver, who had no driver’s license, was operating the vehicle on behalf of the vehicle owner, who was riding in the vehicle's front passenger seat. The vehicle also carried five other passengers inside the vehicle, all men, who along with the driver, had recently illegally entered the United States in Arizona and had paid for transportation from Alabama to Florida.
The U.S. Border Patrol took custody of the driver and the five other passengers, and FHP troopers arrested the vehicle owner, Simon Mendoza Robles, 33, of Mexico, on six counts of human smuggling, and transported him to the Sumter County Detention Center in Bushnell, Florida.