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Alleged smuggler is decorated Vietnam vet

Louie Gilot
El Paso Times
Friday, January 13, 2006

The alleged ringleader of a people smuggling organization is a decorated Vietman War veteran who married an undocumented immigrant, his family and his lawyer said.

Michael Lynn Price, 53, of Socorro, was arrested last week for allegedly ordering the smuggling of undocumented immigrants from El Paso to Dallas in the back of tractor-trailers.

At a detention hearing Thursday, Price's lawyer, Alex Melendez, said the government had no evidence against his client.

"He was not seen on a videotape like the other guys. It's all based on co-defendants to whom they offered deals. They don't have any evidence that my client was involved," Melendez said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandy Gardes said the government has taped phone conversations that incriminate Price.

Price's family members and friends who attended the hearing did not comment except to say that Price was awarded the Bronze Star for service in Vietnam.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Mesa declined to allow bond for Price, for his wife, Fabiola del Carmen Moguel de Price, who is 29 according to friends and 39 according to the government, and for Pedro Cruz Moreno. Moguel and Cruz are undocumented immigrants. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Moguel had been arrested by the Border Patrol four times under different names in the past six years.

Moguel's elderly stepfather, Fausto Rodriguez Vargas, came to the hearing from Juárez.

"I don't understand anything about her arrest," he said.

Friend Rosario San Luis said Moguel and Price were a generous couple who took her and her baby in when she needed a place to stay. Moguel and Price had been dating for five years and married two years ago, San Luis said.

The government says Price's assets include seven trailers, two vehicles and 21 vending machines. ICE officials said his smuggling ring generated more than $1.6 million between March 2003 and October 2005.

ICE special agent Tom Hernandez testified Thursday that investigators first heard about Price from truck drivers caught with undocumented immigrants. ICE agents first stopped a shipment of immigrants attributed to the Price smuggling ring at the Sierra Blanca Border Patrol checkpoint. It was a large plywood box containing 28 people on top of a flatbed trailer.

"Was there any water in this box?" Gardes asked Hernandez at the hearing.

"No," Hernandez said.

Judge Mesa allowed $10,000 bonds for alleged accomplices Lluvia Christa Pantoja, 24; Ruth Dolores Santibañez, 33; Michel Rodriguez Rincon, 27; and Fermin Rodulfo Dominguez, 37, who turned himself in to Socorro police this week. Melissa Santibañez, 35, who was already on bond for another offense when she was arrested in the case, was allowed a $15,000 bond.

Hearings will continue next week.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com, 546-6131.