EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Three alleged smugglers and five migrants are in custody after U.S. Border Patrol agents executed a search warrant at an apartment complex in Glendale, Arizona.
The Jan. 31 raid came after Tucson Sector Intelligence Unit agents gathered information about a smuggling organization operating a major migrant “stash house” at the property.
The agents secured a residential search warrant from U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Ambri and converged on the property whose name and address were not immediately disclosed.
Records show eight citizens of Mexico and Guatemala were apprehended, including Sergio Sabino Lorenzo, Miguel Angel Garcia Gayoso and Omar Martinez Lopez. The other migrants allegedly identified the three as the stash house caretakers.
Agents found a lease agreement showing Martinez rented the apartment on Dec. 19. A bag on the floor of one of the bedrooms held keys to vehicles previously involved in migrant smuggling attempts and a debit card belonging to Sabino, court records show.
A black ledger with the names of 131 migrants who had stayed at the apartment in the past two weeks also was found.
Border agents ran a records check on all the detainees and established that at least four were previously removed from the United States. Garcia and Martinez allegedly volunteered they entered the U.S. illegally six and two years ago and that they live in Phoenix.
Martinez allegedly said a criminal organization was paying the $1,600 monthly rent and that he received a similar amount for having his name on the lease. His job was to prevent the migrants from leaving the premises until a driver came to pick them up.
Garcia denied involvement and Sabino, who was described by migrants as the man on the first floor consuming alcohol, did not immediately make a statement.
The migrants told agents they paid a smuggling organization in Mexico $2,500 to $10,000 to be illegally crossed into the U.S. and taken to the interior of the country. Some say they were kept in the bedrooms most of the time and allowed to go to the kitchen one at a time to cook, eat and wash dishes.
Sabino, Garcia and Martinez were charged with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens. Initial hearings are set for Wednesday in a federal courtroom in Tucson.
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