Woman Tried To Smuggle Undocumented Migrants Into Tampa: FHP

TAMPA, FL — A Texas woman accused of trying to smuggle undocumented migrants into Tampa is in jail, Florida Highway Patrol confirmed.

Josselin Nicoll Padilla Valladares, 21, has been charged with six counts of human smuggling.

According to FHP, on Monday afternoon, a trooper noticed a white 2015 Chevrolet Suburban with Texas tags on I-75 near mile marker 301 in Hernando County with an extremely dark, non-transparent window tint that violated state law.

The trooper initiated a traffic stop, and asked the driver, later identified as Padilla Valladares, to roll down the side windows.

"When I asked the driver to roll down the side windows, the front passenger window went down, but not the rear. I repeated my request and the vehicle began to back up. I instructed the driver to stop and asked again for the rear passenger window to be rolled down. The driver complied with my request," a portion of the FHP report read.

Once the windows were down, the trooper said he noticed multiple adult male passengers. He said the SUV also had a lived-in appearance with multiple empty drink containers and excessive air fresheners.

"Based on, but not limited to, my training and experience, I became reasonably suspicious that the occupants of the vehicle were the victims of human smuggling," the trooper wrote in the report. "Due to the totality of the circumstances, I asked Ms. Padilla if she would exit the vehicle and walk with me back to the area in front of my patrol vehicle. During that time, I also requested assistance from other troopers in the area."

The trooper said Padilla Valladares told him that she had driven from Houston and was going to Tampa to drop off the passengers, who she identified as "employees" for her uncle.

Troopers said they initially found six passengers in the vehicle. However, they later located a seventh person hiding in the rear cargo area. All of the passengers were found to be of Mexican or Honduran nationality.

Troopers contacted U.S. Border Patrol personnel and confirmed that the passengers were, in fact, in the United States illegally.

FHP said a check of Padilla Valladares' criminal history also revealed that she had a prior arrest in 2017 for illegal entry into the United States.

According to highway patrol, Padilla Valladares told troopers that she had been paid $900 to take the passengers, whom she did not know, from Houston to Tampa.

Trooper said she picked up the passengers from two houses in Houston, but did not remember the address for either.

"When I asked her where the passengers were from she responded that they were not from here (the US). I asked her to be more specific and she told me that they were from Mexico and Honduras," the report read.

Troopers said officers with U.S. Border Patrol responded to the scene and took custody of the undocumented migrants.

Padilla Valladares was booked into the Hernando County Jail where she faces multiple felonies for human smuggling.