Truck Yields 100 Illegal Immigrants : Smuggling: A CHP officer discovers them crammed into the vehicle and crying for air. Border Patrol officials say it is one of the largest human cargoes they have seen.

Authorities stumbled onto a dramatic illustration Monday of the grim business of smuggling human freight: more than 100 frightened, sweaty illegal immigrants crammed tightly into a single truck.

The passengers--men, women, children--were banging on the walls and shouting for air, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mary Oncale. She stopped the vehicle about 1 p.m. as it struggled up a grade on Interstate 15 near Escondido, about 30 miles northeast of San Diego.

“They were just as afraid of me as I was of them,” Oncale said of the passengers, who were headed for Los Angeles. Anyone who believes immigrant smuggling is not a serious offense, she said, “should see what that truck looked like. They should see smugglers taking advantage of people like that.”

U.S. Border Patrol officials said the load was among the biggest they have encountered.

“The largest load I can recall is a semi full of 125, 130 people, maybe even over that,” said Assistant Chief Marshall Mehlos of the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector, a 30-year veteran.

As the flow of illegal immigration from Mexico picks up during the early months of the year, Border Patrol agents regularly come across sophisticated smuggling rings that move clients by the truckload. Some of the immigrants apprehended Monday told Oncale they had paid $300 for the hot, harrowing ride.

Oncale pulled over the nondescript white vehicle, which was about 30 feet long, because it appeared to be dangerously overloaded. The uniformed driver said in English that he was transporting old furniture, but grew nervous when she asked to look in back, Oncale said.

A brief, agonizing drama ensued before Border Patrol agents arrived to take custody of the group. While the immigrants pleaded for the officer to let them out because of the heat, she hesitated, fearing that they would bolt into speeding freeway traffic.

“I was afraid they would get hurt,” said Oncale, citing numerous accidents in which fleeing immigrants have been injured or killed on San Diego County roads. “They busted out a portion of the back door and I told them they could do that, no problem.

“They were wall-to-wall people. . . . I tried to get them to move the children to the front. The women brought up an infant and a 2-year-old.”

Adding to the confusion--and the alarm of passing motorists--about 10 passengers escaped through a trapdoor in the floor of a hidden compartment and sprinted off in all directions, authorities said.

Border Patrol agents arrested the unidentified driver, a Mexican illegal immigrant in his 20s, who will be charged with smuggling, and said they suspect a major smuggling ring is involved. The truck was registered to a Los Angeles resident and may have been stolen, authorities said.

The remaining 95 passengers will be processed and returned to Mexico. None required medical attention.