Mexican officials using a large X-ray scanner at a checkpoint in the central state of Zacatecas found 51 Central American migrants in hidden compartments inside a truck, Trend reports citing Reuters.
Footage of the X-ray shows a ghost-like truck filled with the brightened silhouettes of the migrants, some sitting, others lying down along two levels in the crowded compartments.
The migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Ecuador, 21 of whom were minors, are now in the custody of the country’s National Migration Institute (INM), government officials said in a statement late on Sunday.
The migrants will be returned to their home countries, the statement said.
The apprehension comes weeks after the appointment of hard-charging former prisons chief Francisco Garduno as the new head of the INM. Under Garduno, the immigration authority has made a number of high-profile captures of migrants smuggled in vehicles.
The INM’s former chief official, an academic recognized for his work on immigration policy, left his position in mid-June amidst tensions over a June 7 deal with the United States under which Mexico averted tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump.