NASH COUNTY, N.C. — Three people were detained Monday morning after two of the people told authorities a woman refused to pay them for smuggling her into the country.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol stopped a red Ford van on Interstate 95 around 1 a.m. Monday near mile marker 150 in Nash County after reports that two men were seen forcing a woman into a van in Virginia, said Lt. Everett Clendenin of the N.C. Highway Patrol.

When authorities approached the van, they found the woman that had been allegedly abducted. She told authorities that she was in the country illegally and that two men in the van had helped her enter the country illegally.

When the two men were questioned, they confirmed the woman's story, but said that she had refused to pay them, so they were returning her to Mexico.

All three are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration officials, Clendenin said.