What is the Texas Stash House Reward Program?
The Texas Stash House Rewards Program is a joint program of Texas Crime Stoppers and the Texas Department of Public Safety designed to encourage Texans to anonymously report information on stash houses used to facilitate smuggling of illegal aliens, trafficking of victims, and smuggling of drugs in an effort to combat transnational crime.

What is a stash house?
Stash houses are used by alien smuggling organizations (ASO) to conceal illegal aliens and drugs as they are transported across the border. The ASOs use violence, threats and intimidation against il­legal aliens who are held as their hostages as they extort ransom payments from their family members. 

What are the characteristics of a stash house?
In Texas, stash houses may be houses, ranches, business locations, mobile homes, hotels, or apartments. Most stash houses are rental properties, have squalid conditions and are ill-equipped to safely hold large numbers of people. 

What is transnational crime?
Transnational crime involves criminal networks operating in more than one country and commonly includes money laundering, hu­man smuggling, and trafficking of humans, drugs and weapons.

Is there a reward for information involving stash houses?
Individuals with information leading to the arrest of suspects in­volved in stash house operations or transnational crimes in Texas are eligible for a reward up to $2,500.

What information should the tipster provide to the Texas Stash House Rewards Program?
The information provided by the tipster must lead to the discovery of a stash house in Texas used in transnational crime. This information usually pertains to at least one of the following: large quantities of illicit drugs, sheltering/smuggling of undocumented aliens, human trafficking, suspicious activity or extortion.

Will the person reporting the information remain anonymous?
As long as the tipster does not provide their personal information, all calls, texts and web tips submitted to Texas Crime Stoppers remain completely anonymous. Government Code Chapter 414, Section 8, states that evidence of criminal activity communicated between a tipster and Texas Crime Stoppers may not be compelled to be pro­duced before a court.

How does one report information regarding a stash house?
The individual can call the Texas Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477); text the letters DPS, followed by the tip, to CRIMES (274637) from a cell phone; or submit a web tip at dps.texas.gov.

(512) 463-1919