Woman tries flirting with DPS Trooper before human smuggling arrest
By: A woman accused of trying to smuggle two undocumented immigrants into the United States is seen trying to flirt her way out of an arrest, as captured on a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper’s body camera.
The video of her arrest was posted on Twitter by DPS Lt. Christopher Olivarez.
On Wednesday, April 12, troopers say they stopped a gold Chevrolet Malibu on FM 1017 in Jim Hogg County. During the traffic stop, troopers say they discovered the driver, Lidia Elizabeth Badillo, a Mexican national living in Edinburg, was smuggling two women.
Badillo is seen on the trooper’s body cam footage, stating she and her two friends, who she claims she met four months ago at “Club Fuego,” were going to go get drinks at a bar.
When asked if the driver’s licenses presented were legitimate, Badillo told the trooper that she did not know.
Moments later, as the trooper states he is going to run the driver’s licenses through the system, Badillo attempts to distract him with flattery.
“I’m looking at your eye's sir,” Badillo said to the trooper. “I’m looking at your eyes because you’re pretty handsome.”
DPS said Badillo later admitted to troopers that she picked up the women at a stash house in Mission and was attempting to drive them through the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint.
DPS said both passengers in the Chevrolet Malibu were migrants from El Salvador and in the country illegally. The migrants gave fake Texas driver’s licenses to the trooper in hopes of making it through the checkpoint, according to DPS.
Badillo is charged with human smuggling.