EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A federal grand jury in El Paso has indicted four alleged caretakers of a home where authorities apprehended 29 migrants in late May.
The grand jury charged Erasmo Ortiz Arzola, Cesar Beltran Rocha, Jesus Fernandez Vazquez and Kevin Morin Lopez with four counts of conspiracy, harboring and transportation of illegal aliens.
The defendants are scheduled to appear at a July 7 arraignment hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne T. Berton in El Paso.
Court records show that U.S. Border Patrol agents gathered information after a failed smuggling attempt that dozens of migrants were in a home in East El Paso waiting to be transported to the interior of the country.
Undercover border agents knocked on the door of the residence near the corner of Yarbrough and Montana streets and told the woman who opened the door he was their “pickup driver.”
The agent saw at least 15 individuals in the living room and told them to exit in a line. Records show agents in uniform immediately showed up, took the 15 into custody and searched the house. A total of 29 citizens of Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala were deemed to be in the U.S. illegally an apprehended.
Records show four of the detainees were later identified by their peers as being their caretakers and drivers.
Ortiz, Beltran, Fernandez and Morin allegedly admitted being in the country illegally and being paid to drive other migrants to the house, feed them and “make sure nobody left” the premises. All but Ortiz had previously been deported from the U.S. The other three were additionally charged with illegal re-entry.
Fernandez allegedly told agents he had driven migrants past Border Patrol highway checkpoints on the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico, at least three times and paid $1,000 for each trip.
Border agents have told Border Report that it’s not unusual for smuggling organizations to hire migrants to transport other migrants when they cannot find U.S. drivers or they decide it’s cheaper for them.
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