Italy — A mid-morning traffic stop along Highway 35 at Italy resulted in several suspects being apprehended while one suspect fled into the nearby campus and headquarters of Monolithic Dome Constructors, Inc. With a couple of suspects being handcuffed to a light pole adjacent to the highway for safekeeping, a man hunt began for the suspect at large.

State troopers converged onto the Monolithic property and where joined in their search by Milford Police Chief Carlos Phoenix and Italy Police Chief Diron Hill, with assistance form Monolithic’s Mike South who unlocked doors of domed buildings, offices, apartments and storage units to allow Phoenix and Hill to enter with pistols and rifles drawn. The domes are relatively bulletproof but once the door was open, South knew all bets would be off for the fleeing suspect if worst came to worst.

After a two-hour search failed to turn up the suspect, a Waxahachie K-9 unit was brought in to flush the suspect out. Quickly, the search dogs found their man who had had concealed himself under some ground cover within some bushes, directly across from Monolithic’s main office. Chief Phoenix immediately slapped on the cuffs and loaded the suspect into a police cruiser.

“The suspect concealed himself very well between some bushes and a fence by covering himself strands of dead grass. You could have stood right next to the spot he was hiding and never have seen him,” commented South after all the suspects had been taking into custody. “But the search dogs, they don’t use their eyes,” South continued.

The intense morning on the Monolithic dome campus ended around 1:30 p.m. The apparent human smuggling effort was foiled and a total of 9 individuals were taken into custody. Smugglers, or “Coyotes,” often receive $3,000.00 for each person they smuggle out of Mexico and into the United States.