EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The arrest of two women in a car carrying migrants has led border agents in Arizona to an online chat used by up to 1,000 smugglers to pick up human “loads.”
Border Patrol agents took Desiree Aguirre and Veronica Aguirre into custody on May 25 near Naco, Arizona, while they allegedly transported three migrants in a gray two-door Dodge Challenger on State Road 92.
Agents monitoring surveillance cameras tracked the Challenger near the border before it proceeded onto SR 92; they notified field agents who initiated an immigration stop, court records show.
The inspection revealed the three passengers in the back seat were Mexican citizens illegally present in the United States. Interviews with the migrants revealed the gray challenger approached them on a road after they crossed into the United States and that a female passenger opened the door and pushed her seat forward to let them into the sports car, a criminal complaint filed on May 28 in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona alleges.
Authorities identified the passenger as Desiree Aguirre, a U.S. citizen from Tucson, Arizona. A consensual search of her cellphone allegedly revealed the GPS coordinates of the pickup location of the migrants.
A more in-depth search allegedly revealed a private Telegram Messenger app group chat with more than 1,000 members “with information for picking up loads of illegal aliens in the Arizona area,” according to the complaint. Chat members have uploaded videos to the chat showing them load migrants into their vehicles and showing off the money they received from the “job,” the complaint alleges.
Desiree Aguirre and driver Veronica Aguirre are facing two counts each of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and aiding and abetting.
The investigation is ongoing.
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