A Tucson man, Sean Christopher Hale, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after previously pleading guilty to Transportation of Illegal Aliens for Profit Placing in Jeopardy the Life of Any Person. Hale’s prison sentence is to be followed by three years of supervised release.
On June 19, 2021, Hale was stopped while driving a large water truck that was reported to be smuggling noncitizens in its tank. When Border Patrol Agents opened the steel tank of the vehicle, they found 26 individuals inside.
While the individuals had only been in the tank for a short period of time, most were already sweating and having difficulty breathing. Some of the individuals rescued from the tank had fainted due to the heat and lack of oxygen.