CBP officers find woman in gas tank at San Ysidro border crossing

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers discovered a woman being smuggled inside an SUV’s gas tank last week at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, according to court records.

While CBP officers regularly find drugs hidden inside the gas tanks of vehicles, it’s much less common — if not unprecedented — to find a person concealed inside one.

The woman, a Mexican citizen, was discovered when a CBP officer inspecting the SUV “observed a human foot sticking out” of the gas tank, according to a criminal complaint against the driver filed in San Diego federal court. Officers then began taking apart the tank, which was not factory standard, and discovered the woman lying in a puddle of gasoline, appearing disoriented and suffering from apparent chemical burns to her legs and feet; she was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation, treated and quickly released.

The incident occurred around 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 27, and involved a U.S. citizen driving a GMC Yukon that an officer at the port of entry noticed was emitting a strong odor of gasoline, according to the criminal complaint. The driver allegedly acknowledged the smell and said that it had “been like that for a couple days.”

The officer then knocked on the SUV’s gas tank, and believing that it sounded “solid” rather than hollow, requested a dog trained to sniff out drugs and humans, according to the court records. After the dog zeroed in on the underside of the SUV, the driver was detained, and the veh...