ATASCOSA, Texas — Texas deputies searching for a stolen vehicle have uncovered a major auto theft and a possible human trafficking ring, authorities said.

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Alejandro Juarez and Lidia Lucio Juarez, both 51, were arrested on Tuesday and each charged with eight counts of theft of a vehicle worth between $30,000 and $150,000, online booking records show of Bexar County. Each charge is a third degree felony.

According to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, deputies found eight stolen work trucks – some emptied of their seats to presumably make room for traffic – at a property in southern Bexar County on Saturday, KSAT-TV reported. The trucks, which deputies valued at more than $400,000, were found with 11 undocumented immigrants hiding in a shed, according to the TV station.

“Each vehicle was worth well over $50,000,” the sheriff’s office said in an affidavit of arrest.

Deputies were originally looking for a ping on a stolen Chevrolet 2500 work truck when they found the other trucks and immigrants on the Juarezes’ property in Atacosa, KABB-TV reported. The truck was equipped with a GPS transmitter that allowed it to be tracked, according to the television channel.

Deputies knocked on the front door and asked the woman who answered if she would allow them to “look into the backyard”, according to the affidavit. The woman told deputies she needed to call her father, but did not return after closing the door, KABB reported.

After an investigator obtained permission to search the premises, officials found Alejandro Juarez in a hidden crawl space in the hangar where they found the immigrants, KABB reported.

The investigator wrote in the affidavit that he found several stolen vehicles from the residents’ carport. He added that he discovered “several truck seats, burnt out truck seats, tools and equipment normally seen in work trucks”.

“In my training and experience, whenever bench seats are removed from work trucks, it is for the intended purpose of transporting undocumented immigrants,” the investigator wrote in the affidavit.

The vehicle that was initially detected in the area was found at a nearby property, KSAT reported.

Bail was set at $40,000 each for the married couple, according to online records.

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