() A Mississippi man who was convicted of using a cloned home improvement store delivery truck to smuggle migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border in 2024 will spend 10 years in prison after he was sentenced last week.
Cezanne Megel Patterson, 29, was sentenced to a Texas prison nearly 11 months after he was arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Patterson was pulled over by a Texas DPS trooper Aug. 30, 2024, while he was driving what appeared to be a Lowe’s home improvement delivery truck on a highway outside of Del Rio. During a search of the vehicle, the trooper discovered 17 migrants inside a three-foot-wide false compartment area with no ventilation, officials said.
previously reported that troopers reported several men and women drenched in sweat and suffering from dehydration and numbness in their legs after being crammed into the confined space.
Video of the arrest released by Texas DPS last year showed Patterson telling the trooper who pulled him over that he was a self-contractor. The trooper explained that the truck’s license plate registration had expired.
Patterson was arrested and charged with the smuggling of persons with the likelihood of causing serious bodily injury. Patterson received the 10-year sentence after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation into law in 2023 that establishes a 10-year minimum sentence for those convicted of human smuggling.
“Patterson’s case is the perfect example of the dangerous lengths smugglers will go to when risking human lives for profit,” DPS South Texas Region Chief Arturo Dela Garza said in a statement released by the agency Wednesday. “Human smuggling is a serious crime, and I am proud of the collaborative work between our State Troopers and local prosecutors to hold smugglers, like Patterson, accountable.”
