Micanopy, FL– A 24-year-old man has been taken into custody after a Florida Highway Patrol officer discovered he was part of a human smuggling operation during a traffic stop.
The trooper monitoring a stretch of I-75 in Micanopy near mile marker 375, conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle after noticing the tent on the vehicle appeared to be too dark.
According to the trooper, the driver, Carlos Velasco Mancilla, appeared “overly nervous” and also had 10 other people in the vehicle with him.
Mancilla told the trooper that the people in the vehicle were his “companeros,” but Mancilla could not remember any of their names.
Mancilla was asked to step out of the vehicle while the trooper requested assistance from a Spanish-speaking trooper.
An investigation found that Mancilla and all of the passengers were in the U.S. illegally and that the passengers were paying Mancilla to transport them.
According to the report, the passengers had been picked up from different locations across the U.S., including Oklahoma and Georgia, and were being smuggled to Brandon, Florida.

Mancilla has been charged with 10 counts human smuggling and operating a vehicle without a valid driver’s license.