17 IMMIGRANTS FOUND LOCKED IN RIG AT TRUCK STOP

EDINBURG, TEX. Police in Texas acting on a tip found 17 immigrants locked inside a tractor-trailer parked at a gas station about 30 km from the border with Mexico, less than a month after 10 people died in the back of a hot truck in San Antonio.

The immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Romania may have been locked inside the 18-wheeler in Edinburg for at least eight hours before being freed by officers Sunday, according to Edinburg Assistant Police Chief Oscar Trevino.

None required medical attention. A man and woman who Trevino said are Cuban nationals were in charge of the rig and have been detained.

On Sunday, Edinburg police went to the gas station, a popular stopover for commercial truck drivers, after receiving an anonymous call from someone saying a relative was trapped inside the tractor-trailer. Officers began knocking on the sides of trailers parked at the station and eventually received return knocks from the one holding the immigrants, police said.

The discovery comes three weeks after 10 people died in a sweltering rig parked at a Walmart in San Antonio. Immigration officials say survivors estimated 100 people had been packed into the back of the 18-wheeler at one point. The driver of that rig remains in federal custody, charged with illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death.