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PEÑITAS, TX – The dozen Mexican illegal immigrants apprehended by border patrol agents Friday claimed they were headed to a Whitetails Unlimited Banquet in San Antonio.

    “They were dressed in camouflage Scent-Lok® suits from head to foot,” says federal agent Juan Salizar of the McAllen Border Patrol Station who made the surprise discovery.  “They sure looked the part. ”

Scent-Lok® garments—a high-dollar specialy line of clothing used by hunters to fool the wary noses of big game animals like whitetail deer and elk—utilize what the Michigan-based company calls “odor eliminating” technology.

According to the Scent-Lok® website, “Activated carbon has millions of microscopic pores, cracks and crevices which attract the scent particles and create a bond within the carbon.  These particles are trapped while air is allowed to breathe through the fabric. This process is called ADSORPTION.”

With a liberal dose of pseudo-science, combined with the relatively low IQ of the average hunter and a high-profile marketing campaign that includes outfitting every major television outdoor personality with a closet full of free Scent-Lok® gear, most hunters nowadays are convinced you can not possible go into the woods without an entire Scent-Lok® outfit and a mouthful of Gum-o-Flage.

(Note: Gum-o-Flage is another scent-control product designed to eliminate bad breath for hunters trying to fool the wary noses of big-game species like whitetail and elk.)

Maybe hunters aren’t as dumb as they seem.

Says agent Salizar, during Friday’s routine stop and questioning of a pickup truck driver, the only thing that gave the first two illegals away was a “flopping” noise he heard when one of the Mexicans fell onto the pavement under the vehicle.

According to Salizar, the individual then moaned—“Ouchy wawa!”  Salizar looked under the vehicle and saw the camo-clad individual.

    “He gave me a little smile and a wave,” remembers Salizar.  “But I suspected something wasn’t right.”

Salizar called his supervisor who ordered mandatory inspections of every pickup truck passing through the station.  Checks revealed 10 more undocumented immigrants wearing Scent-Lok® suits and hidden in similar fashion.

    “They might have gotten away with it had that first individual lost his grip on the undercarriage of the truck.  The dog had sniffed around the entire vehicle and never knew they were there.”

Border Patrol K-9 units are trained not only to find drugs but also people trying to slip over U.S. borders illegally.  Federal agents like Salizar, of the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector station, usually see attempts to smuggle people in boxes, packing crates, or concealed behind false walls and floors built into big rig style shipping trucks.

    “We’ve seen them pack the boxes with onions, hot pepper, rotten tomatoes—anything to try and fool the dog’s nose—but nothing has worked until this,” says Salizar, adding that the $200 to $300 dollars it might cost to buy an entire Scent-Lok® outfit is nothing to the individuals involved in the ruthless and lucrative business of “people smuggling.”

Officials say there’s no way to estimate how many people have already slipped over the border wearing Scent-Lok®.  But where there one there’s undoubtedly more.

    “If this stuff is really as good as they’ve been saying, it was only a matter of time until the wrong people got their hands on it,” says agent Salizar.  “I believe it works.  You put a couple illegals in full Scent-Lok® suits and Friday’s events proved the best sniffer dog in the world’s not going to find them.”