Thread: The anatomy of a human smuggling operation

The anatomy of a human smuggling operation
Zack Quaintance

EAST OF SAN ISIDRO — The coyote ran from his stolen truck after it crashed, not knowing one of the 16 illegal immigrants onboard had suffered a fatal head wound.

Moments earlier, a marked U.S. Border Patrol vehicle had pulled behind the coyote’s 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup.

Authorities say the truck’s driver later confessed to panicking and speeding off into the underbrush. He told federal investigators that he worked for a human smuggling ring that moved 90 illegal immigrants into the country during the past two weeks.

The man, Arturo Vega Cardenas of Houston, spent his 23rd birthday on Saturday in the Hidalgo County jail without bond. He awaits trial on felony murder charges in connection with the death of the illegal immigrant who suffered the head wound during the crash just east of San Isidro in rural Hidalgo County.

Stories like these are far too common, according to officials on both sides of the border.

Immigrants aspire for a better life in the United States. They sink trust and large sums of money into a coyote, or human smuggler.

The coyote then abandons the people — whom he calls pollos, or chickens, at the first site of trouble or authorities. The coyotes’ disregard for others’ safety often leads to drownings and fatal car accidents.

The investigation into Vega’s crash and his subsequent confession show the make-up of human smuggling rings that authorities in the Rio Grande Valley have battled for years.

The crash

Border Patrol agents spotted the truck Vega was driving just after 4 a.m., going northbound on Highway 681 toward Highway 1017, a far-flung corner of Hidalgo County.

The marked law enforcement vehicle pulled behind the truck and ran a registration check. If the check would have ended, agents would have learned a driver reported the truck stolen Tuesday night at a Wal-Mart in Weslaco.

But the truck immediately swung westbound onto Highway 1017 and began to speed away.

The agents pursued.

Vega lost control of the truck and bolted off the road, driving northbound into the brush, authorities say.

It mowed over a dirt hill and smashed through a barbed-wire fence, coming to rest about 25 yards off the road. Agents say they saw about 12 people run from the truck, including the driver.

Agents detained five of the people, all of whom were undocumented immigrants. The detainees included a father, his 16-year-old son and his 13-year-old nephew.

In the back of the truck they found the body of Jose Adolfo Padilla, 52, of Mexico. The crash had dealt him a fatal head wound.

An all-day investigation would lead to Vega’s arrest and confession to driving illegal immigrants.

He would later tell investigators he feared arrest by Border Patrol agents, and he had run off the road to escape.

He hadn’t intended to kill anyone; he thought only of his freedom.

The investigation

The crash investigation led authorities to a house near the intersection of Shary and 8 Mile roads in far north Mission. There, investigators found 15 illegal immigrants packed into a mobile home.

Special agents from Immigration Customs Enforcement arrested three men in connection with immigrant smuggling. Information gathered at the stash house points to a wide-spread human smuggling operation. The men told agents that during the past 15 days they had moved 90 illegal immigrants through the house.

In the human smuggling ring, the men worked as drivers and house operators. They answered to bosses known by aliases.

And they made thousands of dollars.

Vega told authorities he had earned $5,500 just two months into this year for smuggling two other loads of illegal immigrants. He said he was to earn $200 for each person in the truck before it crashed.

Agents used evidence gathered at the stash house to find Vega hiding just off of Farm-to-Market Road 681, north of the small town of McCook.

ICE’s special agents and the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office continue to investigate this operation.

Sheriff Lupe Treviño said the human smuggling operation for which Vega works exemplifies a pattern in the area.

Thieves steal large trucks, such as the crashed Dodge, and take them to Mexico. Human and drug smugglers then use the vehicles to carry bundles of drugs and illegal immigrants across the border to stash houses. Stash house operatives distribute the drugs and immigrants across the country, police say.

“This fits the pattern,â€

This happens all too often, the driver panics and runs or jumps from the vehicle while it's still in motion knowing the BP will have to care for the load of illegals hoping he can get away.
I had 22 I had to care for when I worked EMS along the border.