CBS4 Investigates Human Smuggling
Poll: Are governments and law enforcement doing enough to stop illegal immigration?
Image

Brian Maass
Reporting

Save It
Email this Article Email It
Print this Article Print It

(CBS4) DENVER The CBS4 investigative team watched a major illegal immigrant smuggling ring for months and was able to penetrate the ring. The following is investigator Brian Maass' report.

* * *

They run, walk and ride across the U.S.-Mexico border. If they aren't caught by U.S. authorities, illegal immigrants disappear onto the streets of America. But thanks to a man who says his name is Pepe, who CBS4 watched for months, it becomes clearer where in the U.S. illegals end up and how they get there.

Pepe calls himself a "pollero" -- a coyote -- a human smuggler. Over the course of 4 months, a CBS4 undercover investigation penetrated Pepe's smuggling operation as it openly moved through Denver what he indicated were illegal immigrants.

His business is robust.

On a regular basis, CBS4 watched as Pepe stopped with vanloads of people at the El Padrino restaurant at Federal and Interstate 70.

After lunch and a stopover of several hours, they would continue east on I-70.

An undercover CBS4 producer made contact with Pepe, telling him she had a brother in Mexico she wanted to smuggle into the U.S.

Below lies a conversation between CBS4's producer and Pepe:

"No problem. Don't worry. He's in good hands ... don't worry, do you understand me?" Pepe said.

"So, I have to give you the money first?" CBS4's producer asked.

"No, you'll give it to me when he is in California," Pepe said. "There you send me the cash."

"I don't pay you anything until ... ?" CBS4's producer asked.

"Until he is in California," Pepe said. "I'll say, 'You know what, I have your brother here' ... and then is when you send me the cash."

Pepe's talk was backed up with action. CBS4 repeatedly watched as he moved vans packed with men, women and children through Denver.

Through multiple conversations, Pepe detailed how it works: how he and his ring transport illegals to Denver and across the U.S. day after day.

Pepe told CBS4's operative that her brother needed to get to a staging area in Tijuana, Mexico, just south of the border.

From there, Pepe said, CBS4's operative's brother would be picked up. It would cost $1,800 to make what Pepe refers to as "the jump" -- the illegal trip from Mexico to Los Angeles.

The following is another conversation with CBS4's producer and Pepe.

"Should he bring clothes?" CBS4's producer asked.

"He can bring a little suitcase, but that stays at the jump," Pepe said. "But when people come carrying nothing, the immigration messes with them."

Pepe told CBS4's producer it would be another $400 to transfer her brother from Los Angeles to Denver. But he said the illegals he transports could be taken on to New York or Florida, all for a price.

More of Pepe's conversation with CBS4's producer follows:

"Where will you leave him for me?" CBS4's producer asked.

"Here," said Pepe, referring to El Padrino. "When I bring him here, here is where you will pay me for the ride."

Pepe seemed unconcerned about law enforcement. On one occasion, a Denver police officer stopped by, checked out Pepe's van, talked to him and left.

* * *

Jeff Copp, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement regional office, told CBS4 "I would think they're moving quite a few people."

Copp's comments came after seeing the CBS4 undercover video.

Immigration authorities said what Pepe is doing is part of a huge business.

"I would say these people are in it for nothing, but the money, they care nothing about the cargo they are carrying," Copp said.

A group of Republican state legislators also examined CBS4's tapes. They said this has to stop -- for many reasons.

"I don't like the fact that Denver becomes one of the key parts of this country where they're moved to and distributed from," Rep. Dave Schultheis, of Colorado Springs, said. "I don't like that."

"How many of these people, referring to the people in the vans, could be terrorists, too," Rep. Jim Welker, of Loveland, said. "We do have a war on terror going on"

Pepe may not be alone in his routes or his methods.

On many days, CBS4 watched as other virtually identical white vans, with out-of-state plates and blacked-out windows, stopped at the restaurant. Latino passengers would stop for lunch, then re-board for the trip east.

Immigration authorities have long suspected Denver was a key location for the smuggling of illegals. A 1997 government report suggested 20 percent of illegals arrested on Colorado highways were headed for Denver, with the other 80 percent headed to cities farther east.

What CBS4 found Pepe doing -- out in the open, day after day -- may be the clearest indication that the business of trafficking illegals to and through Denver, is booming.

"I guarantee my work," Pepe said.

But when CBS4 talked to Pepe earlier this week by phone, he claimed he is not a coyote, but only a man who sells tamales.

The owner of El Padrino -- the restaurant where they stop -- said the smugglers and their illegal immigrant cargo have been stopping in often over the last year.

He said that to him, it's just business for his restaurant.

Immigrations officials told CBS4 they probably won't go after Pepe and the individual smugglers CBS4 caught on tape.

They said it is more efficient to spend their time trying to go deeper and take down an entire smuggling organization.


(Copyright © MMV CBS Television Stations, Inc.)

http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/loc...321192520.html