
Thirty-one migrants who were discovered inside a U-Haul van in a neighborhood of Coral Gables, in South Florida, were detained, reported 7NewsMiami.
Coral Gables police were quickly called to the scene in the area of LeJeune Road near Ridgewood Road on Friday morning when a security guard reported a possible kidnapping.
In the back of the truck, authorities found 31 migrants of "Chinese nationality," in addition to five other people traveling in the front, including a Cuban, an Ecuadorian and a Brazilian.
It is not yet clear whether the incident was a smuggling or human trafficking incident, and police are still investigating.
Coral Gables Police Chief Edward Hudak said they are “looking into it and what we are doing is bringing in our partners from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to see if this is a human trafficking or smuggling operation,” he said.
"The people who were in the van had documents, so in most cases it wasn't like they were against their will. We have to, with Homeland Security Investigations, go case by case and see what the problem is," he added.
After further investigation, officials concluded that these migrants were dumped in the water, somewhere around the southern tip of Coral Gables, and made their way on foot to the U-Haul van.
"We assume they were dropped off somewhere around the south end of Coral Gables and walked to the van where they were loaded. It is still being investigated whether the woman who was observed being abducted was attempting to escape from the people who were bringing her in," Hudak said.
Kathy Parks, a neighbor who saw the situation unfold, said, "LeJeune couldn't be taken down. They had LeJeune blocked off on several streets."
"All we saw was a U-Haul van with cardboard over the windows and two people handcuffed outside the van," he added.
According to the neighbor, she saw several people escorted by police officers, and saw people on the ground until they called patrol cars and took them into custody.