Two alleged leaders of a felony group suspected of smuggling 20,000 individuals with out everlasting authorized residency into the US from Guatemala have been arrested in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors stated on Monday.
Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, referred to as “Turko”, and his lieutenant, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, had been taken into custody Friday and have pleaded not responsible to a number of costs associated to smuggling migrants throughout the border over 5 years, the US lawyer’s workplace stated. A federal decide ordered the boys, 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 an unlimited human smuggling ring working for at the very least a dozen years that primarily transports individuals to the US from Guatemala.
The felony community was accountable for the deaths of seven immigrants with out authorized standing – together with a four-year-old little one – who had been killed in a November 2023 car crash in Oklahoma, prosecutors stated.
A driver who has been in custody in Oklahoma since that crash, Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj, was additionally charged within the California indictment, in accordance with the courtroom paperwork. One other man, Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, a lieutenant within the group and a supervisor of a staff of drivers, faces costs as properly. He’s believed to be in Guatemala, officers stated.
Attorneys for the 4 males couldn’t be positioned on 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 US by way of Mexico, prosecutors stated.
For a further charge, the migrants had been transported and moved to numerous locations in the USA, together with Los Angeles and Phoenix. Among the migrants who weren’t capable of pay the charges had been held hostage in a stash home close to downtown Los Angeles, in accordance with prosecutors.
“These smuggling organizations don’t have any regard for human life and their conduct kills,” appearing US lawyer Joseph T McNally stated in a press release. “The indictment and arrests right here have dismantled one of many nation’s largest and most harmful smuggling organizations.”
If convicted of all costs, the defendants may face a statutory most sentence of demise or life imprisonment.
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