Four Mexican nationals and a Guatemalan national were arrested last week after federal and local authorities thwarted their alleged human smuggling operation in Phoenix.
The five people were indicted for “conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens” by a federal grand jury, as they used a Phoenix home to house people before sending them in their smuggling network throughout the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.
Authorities carried out search warrants on April 30 at three residences and found 22 total people in what are referred to in court documents as stash houses.
Interviews with these individuals revealed they could not leave their assigned living spaces or make phone calls and that they didn’t have enough food and had to sleep on the floor in “filthy living conditions.”
Investigators found and arrested two involved in the criminal activity two days prior on April 28 after following through on “surveillance on several older model minivans that were observed making trips across the country, often with charity license plates attached,” the release said.
In a traffic stop near Cordes Lakes, Arizona, which is about 70 miles north of Phoenix, authorities found 11 people in a minivan and arrested 32-year-old Alejandro Ambrocio-Espinosa of Mexico and 48-year-old Enrique Cervantes-Barrera of Mexico.
The other three arrested for their roles in the operation were 40-year-old Rigoberto Rangel-Mora of Mexico, 52-year-old Jesus Marin-Esquivel of Mexico and 41-year-old Ingrid Bolanos-Gomez of Guatemala.
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If the arrested individuals are convicted for charges related to human smuggling, they could see up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and have to pay $250,000.
The Douglas, Arizona, unit of Homeland Security Investigations teamed up with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s U.S. Border Patrol Intelligence Unit in this case.
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