A driver and his front-seat passenger told a Texas sheriff’s sergeant there was nobody else riding with them. The answer apparently had one problem: there was another man sitting in the rear passenger area.
The encounter began around 3:57 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9, when Zavala County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Alvizo stopped a 2017 Ram pickup near the intersection of U.S. Highway 57 and FM 1436 for what the agency described as multiple traffic violations.
The Zavala County Sheriff’s Office identified the driver as Edwin Hernandez and the front-seat passenger as Jhojan Morales. Both told Alvizo they were headed to Querétaro, Mexico, and both denied having any additional passengers in the truck, according to the agency’s account.
Alvizo looked more closely and spotted another man in the rear passenger area. The sheriff’s office identified him as Jose Mondragon, who presented a Mexican passport and told the sergeant that he was unlawfully present in the United States. Uvalde Border Patrol agents were called to the scene.
Check The Shoes
During what the sheriff’s office described as a safety Terry frisk, Mondragon told Alvizo he had approximately $1,000 in currency inside his footwear.
Alvizo checked and recovered several $100 bills concealed beneath flaps in Mondragon’s shoes, according to the sheriff’s office.
The agency did not say that possessing $1,000, carrying cash in footwear or the money itself constituted a separate crime. Its account says Border Patrol ultimately took custody of Mondragon along with the recovered currency, but does not explain what subsequently happened to the money.
That distinction quickly became a point of discussion beneath the sheriff’s Facebook post, where multiple commenters questioned why the cash was noteworthy and whether hiding money in a shoe was itself illegal. The comments do not establish what happened to the currency beyond what the sheriff’s office reported.
Going South
The sheriff’s account included another statement from the two men in the front of the truck.
During additional questioning, Hernandez and Morales told Alvizo that when traveling south along the highway, they routinely transport people they do not know, according to the post.
The sheriff’s office did not announce an arrest or criminal charge against either Hernandez or Morales in its account of the stop, and its description does not identify either man as being charged with human smuggling.
Border Patrol took custody of Mondragon, and the sheriff’s office said the encounter ended without further incident.