Trucker lost license months ago
Florida authorities say man accused in deadly smuggling crime did not have required medical certification
SAN ANTONIO — As authorities tried to determine how a tractor-trailer carrying at least 100 immigrants — 10 of whom died — avoided detection at a checkpoint, Florida officials said Tuesday the truck driver accused of human trafficking lost his commercial vehicle license three months ago.
James Bradley was disqualified from driving commercial after he did not provide a medical card, as required by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, according to Alexis Bakofsky, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
That would prohibit him from driving commercial vehicles in other states, as well.
Bradley was diabetic and had to have a series of amputations, most recently the removal of his leg this spring, according to the Associated Press. He lost his license in April.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations allow commercial drivers with amputations to drive, if they get a special certification. However, a person who uses insulin to control their diabetes, especially to
prevent loss of consciousness or disorientation, typically is denied a license.
Also on Tuesday, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration told the Associated Press that the agency is investigating the company Bradley was working for, Pyle Transportation of Iowa.
The agency said its findings will be shared with Department of Homeland Security investigators, who are conducting a criminal investigation into the immigrants’ deaths, according to the Associated Press.
When contacted by the San Antonio ExpressNews, an employee at Pyle Transportation declined to comment.
Checkpoint review
Bradley, of Kentucky and Florida, was charged Monday with human trafficking after authorities found eight immigrants dead and 30 others suffering from heat-related illnesses in a tractor-trailer at a Walmart parking lot at 8538 S. Interstate 35 on the South Side. Since then, two more people who had been in the trailer died.
Bradley told authorities he was hauling the trailer for Pyle Transportation from Iowa to Brownsville and made some stops along the way, including Laredo. He said he was unaware anyone was in the trailer until he parked it in San Antonio and heard people inside.
Pyle Transportation has a history of safety violations, records show. Its license was downgraded to conditional, which means the company does not have adequate controls to ensure compliance with safety standards, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Administration.
If left unaddressed, this non–compliance could lead to a motor carrier losing the ability to operate, according to National Transportation Consultants, an agency that designs and manages safety and compliance programs.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, meanwhile, are looking into how Bradley was able to bring the trailer full of immigrants through a Border Patrol-run traffic checkpoint on Interstate 35, about 29 miles from the Mexican border.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo said he was told the trailer passed through the checkpoint around 10 p.m. Saturday. Police arrived at the San Antonio Walmart parking lot at 12:23 a.m. Sunday.
Seconds to decide
While the Border Patrol will not speak specifically about the Bradley case, it concedes human cargo can slip through in commercial trucks — without a full inspection — because of the massive traffic that passes through there every day, even at night. In fiscal year 2016, 1.2 million commercial vehicles passed through the checkpoint, along with 1.9 million passenger vehicles, according to the Border Patrol.
Joel Martinez, acting deputy chief of the Border Patrol’s Laredo sector, said in an interview that it is impossible to fully check every commercial truck that comes through — especially opening up trailer doors to see what is inside.
“While we do do our due diligence, and try to talk to as many as possible, just the sheer numbers we’re dealing with, the odds are stacked against us from the beginning,” Martinez said.
He said agents check every truck by talking to the driver and examining the paperwork. If the driver or occupants of the rig are not U.S. citizens, permit paperwork is scrutinized. Border Patrol agents also look at paperwork stating what is in the trailer.
The trucks are not weighed, and the vehicles only will be X-rayed on secondary inspection, he said. But the Border Patrol agents will look for signs that raise suspicions and require that fuller, secondary inspection.
“Because of the volume of traffic, they have seconds to determine whether they want to investigate the truck further or not,” Martinez said. “In this case, if the guy didn’t show signs of nervousness, there was no need to hold him up.”
According to court documents, some of the smuggling victims told investigators they were pounding on the interior walls, although it is not known when they were trying to make themselves heard.
Martinez said “it stands to reason that if our agents would have heard something like that, they would have stopped it.”
Trucker Jim Cullison, who has hauled refrigerated trailers for 25 years, said the walls are thick and insulated with at least 3 inches of hard foam because of the necessity of keeping products preserved.
“It’s next to impossible to hear anybody beating on the walls and or floor or doors,” Cullison said in an email to the Express-News.
Jerry Robinette, who was special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations in San Antonio for several years, seconded Cullison’s observation, though he said it is unclear if the entire load was picked up in Laredo or if some of the immigrants were loaded after passing through the checkpoint.
“They may have been told, ‘Be quiet, you’re going through a checkpoint,’ and, coupled with that, it’s an insulated refrigerated trailer, that would have made it hard to detect,” Robinette said.
Shane Folden, the special agent in charge of ICE and HSI, said his agency is investigating the trailer case and its possible link to a larger smuggling chain.
“The goal is to put together the network and dismantle the organization, and a lot of the time, one of the key pieces to that is the money,” Folden said. “It’s usually a primary motivator for the criminals, and it’s a means to remove what’s facilitating the crime as well. Usually the money is a key component and it really depends on where the information takes us.
Back at courthouse
Bradley made a surprise appearance at San Antonio’s federal courthouse Tuesday and may have spoken further to federal agents, a day after his initial hearing.
Bradley was shuttled from a federal jail to the courthouse in the afternoon, and spent about two hours in a secure area where inmates await court hearings before he was taken back to jail.
He was not scheduled for another court hearing until Thursday. Defendants often are delivered to the marshal cells for “debriefings” in which defendants or witnesses tell their stories to law enforcement or prosecutors.
While Bradley spent time in the holding cells, alleged victims of human trafficking — including two men who had been in the trailer Bradley was hauling — appeared for hearings Tuesday.
The pair that had been in the trailer, like two others who appeared Monday, were ordered held as material witnesses and will provide videotaped depositions next month about their ordeal.