One local freeway was tied up for hours yesterday as suspected immigrant smugglers blasted away:
It was hardly the city’s first smuggling-related violence. For decades, Houston has been considered a major distribution hub for human traffickers, who sometimes hold immigrants in “stash houses” while family members try to raise thousands of dollars for their release.
Last April 24, one man was wounded in a shootout at a house in northwest Houston in what federal authorities described as an apparent battle between rival smugglers over control of the immigrants. Police found 10 Mexicans, three Hondurans and two Guatemalans in a locked closet inside.
A month earlier, gunfire erupted at a southwest Houston neighborhood, and two men were wounded in an apparent turf war between rival smugglers. Twenty-one immigrants were arrested at that house.
In the latest incident, a silver Ford pickup carrying at least 10 people left the freeway at Bissonnet and had stopped in traffic about noon Tuesday when two men approached on foot and shot into the vehicle, police said.
The city, has been ecouraged by local activists to ignore this problem but pressure is mounting:
After a gun battle on one of Houston’s busy freeways, you’d think it would be at least of as much concern as citywide wifi, hobo parks, renegade downtown jaywalkers, taking care of Yellow Cab, and delivering the land of nonprofit organizations to local developers.
You’d think.
