LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal authorities in Los Angeles arrested two alleged leaders of a prison group suspected of smuggling 20,000 folks from Guatemala to the U.S. and charging every particular person as a lot as $18,000 to get them into the nation.
Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, often known as “Turko,” and his lieutenant, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, have been taken into custody Friday. They’ve every pleaded not responsible to a number of expenses associated to smuggling migrants throughout the border over 5 years, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace stated.
A federal decide ordered the lads, who themselves are within the nation illegally, jailed with out bond till their trial in April.
The indictment names Renoj-Matul as the top of one of many largest human smuggling organizations within the U.S., an unlimited ring working for no less than a dozen years that primarily transported folks to the U.S. from Guatemala.
The prison community was answerable for the deaths of seven immigrants with out authorized standing — together with a 4-year-old baby — who have been killed in a November 2023 car crash in Oklahoma, prosecutors stated.
Performing United States Legal professional Joe McNally, of the Central District of California, proclaims arrests of a transnational prison group that allegedly smuggled roughly 20,000 immigrants from Guatemala to the USA over 5 years on Monday, March 3, 2025, in Los Angeles. They’re searching for Helmer Obispo-Hernandez pictured at left. (Sarah Reingewirtz/The Orange County Register through AP)
A driver who’s been in custody in Oklahoma since that crash, Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj, was additionally charged within the California indictment, in keeping with the courtroom paperwork. One other man, Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, a lieutenant within the group and a supervisor of a workforce of drivers, faces expenses as effectively. He’s believed to be in Guatemala, officers stated.
Attorneys for the 4 males couldn’t be situated Monday for remark.
Renoj-Matual was assisted by associates in Guatemala who solicited individuals who every paid between $15,000 and $18,000 to be smuggled to the U.S. by way of Mexico, prosecutors stated.
For a further payment, the migrants have been transported and moved to varied locations in the USA, together with Los Angeles and Phoenix. A number of the migrants who weren’t capable of pay the charges have been held hostage in a stash home close to downtown Los Angeles, in keeping with prosecutors.
“These smuggling organizations have no regard for human life and their conduct kills,” Performing United States Legal professional Joseph T. McNally stated in an announcement. “The indictment and arrests here have dismantled one of the country’s largest and most dangerous smuggling organizations.”
If convicted of all expenses, the defendants may face a statutory most sentence of dying or life imprisonment.
Initially Printed: March 3, 2025 at 6:55 PM EST
