McAllen teen facing human smuggling charges following crash in Edinburg
A McAllen teenager is facing human smuggling charges after leading troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety on a chase that ended with a crash in Edinburg.
DPS investigators say the chase started Thursday evening in Brooks County when Ruben Villegas, 19, was seen dropping off five people at a rest stop who ran into the brush, according to a news release from DPS.
When a trooper attempted to conduct a traffic stop, Villegas sped off southbound on U.S. 281 without headlamps, the release said.
“The driver of the Chevrolet lost control of the vehicle and veered off the roadway traveling west across the southbound frontage, where it struck a bar ditch and went airborne,” the release continued. “The Chevrolet then struck a fence and a tree as it rolled onto a property on U.S. 281 and Via Sol in Edinburg.
Three other people were found in the trunk of the car with minor injuries. All four individuals in the vehicle were hospitalized. Villegas remained in critical condition and will be arrested and charged with smuggling of persons with serious bodily injury and evading arrest with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury once he’s released from the hospital.