The Department of Justice stated eight individuals have been arrested for his or her alleged involvement in a human smuggling community close to the Texas-Mexico border.
An indictment unsealed on Tuesday claims that the community — led by 31-year-old Erminia Serrano Piedra, also called “Boss Lady” — made tens of millions of {dollars} by illegally transporting migrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia throughout the U.S.
Piedra and her co-conspirators — recognized as Kevin Daniel Nuber, 41; Laura Nuber, 40; Lloyd Bexley, 51; Jeremy Dickens, 45; Katie Ann Garcia, 39; Oliveria Piedra-Campuzana, 53; and Pedro Hairo Abrigo, 33 — have been arrested in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, the DOJ stated.
U.S. Department of Justice
According to the indictment, migrants and their relations paid the group to illegally transport them to the U.S. The group allegedly used drivers — who have been paid as much as $2,500 per migrant — to select up the migrants close to the U.S-Mexico border and harbor them at “stash houses” alongside the way in which as they transported them additional into the states, the DOJ stated.
However, the migrants have been subjected to “deplorable conditions” in the course of the journey. The drivers would allegedly cover them in suitcases in pickup vans, cram them in the again of tractor-trailers, and even put them in repurposed water tanks and picket crates strapped to flatbed trailers, in line with the indictment.
“The human smuggling organization allegedly used methods to transport migrants that placed their lives in danger as they were frequently held in contained spaces with little ventilation, no temperature control and in conditions that placed them at great risk,” the DOJ stated.
U.S. Department of Justice
In addition to the eight arrests, federal officers additionally seized three properties and $2,299,152.40 in cash judgements, officers stated.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland stated the indictments present the success of the Joint Task Force Alpha, which was created in June 2021 to assist the Department of Homeland Security fight the rise in human smuggling from Central America. It focuses on “networks that endanger, abuse or exploit migrants, present national security risks or engage in other types of transnational organized crime,” in line with the DOJ.
“Human smugglers are criminals who do not care about human life,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection deputy commissioner Troy Miller stated in an announcement Tuesday. “They lie to make money, convincing vulnerable migrants to hand over what is often their life savings in exchange for empty promises to get to the United States.”
The bust comes months after 53 migrants have been discovered useless in an deserted tractor-trailer on a again highway on the sting of San Antonio. According to the Justice Department, two males charged in the incident are doubtlessly going through the demise penalty.
story by The Texas Tribune Source link
