ICE: Man used Craigslist to recruit human smugglers

March 21, 2012 9:58 PM
By JARED TAYLOR/The Monitor

RIO GRANDE CITY — Federal authorities arrested a Mexican national accused of using Craigslist to recruit “coyotes” for his human smuggling operation.

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested José Gustavo Díaz Velásquez, 29, on March 14 during an investigation into someone using Craigslist to recruit drivers to transport undocumented immigrants through the Rio Grande Valley, a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release states.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the Craigslist human smuggling recruitment effort began last August, when agents found about 10 different postings believed to be connected to the organization.

Agents managed to locate a McAllen apartment, belonging to Diaz’s wife, where the Craigslist postings originated, prosecutors said.

Díaz also had a YouTube account with a dash-cam video of a high-speed pursuit that occurred in La Joya, prosecutors said. The driver eluded law enforcement, but police said they detained nine undocumented immigrants from Díaz ‘svehicle.

ICE agents said they interviewed several people hired to transport immigrants, eliciting information that helped ICE build its case against Diaz.

Border Patrol agents said they arrested Díaz when they saw him near a known human smuggling area in Rio Grande City on March 14.

Diaz appeared Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dorina Ramos in McAllen. He remains in federal custody.

Man used Craigslist to recruit human smugglers | used, human, ice - ICE - Brownsville Herald