Thread: First guilty verdict against smuggler under new law

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First guilty verdict against smuggler under new law
Associated Press
Jul. 12, 2006 08:01 PM


A Mexican man was found guilty Wednesday as the first immigrant smuggler to be convicted by a jury under Arizona's new human trafficking law.

Javier Ruiz, 33, had admitted to driving one of two vans that carried 48 illegal immigrants, who were the first customers of smugglers to charged as conspirators under the 11-month-old law.

The conviction came a day after a judge threw out charges against two Mexican men who were accused of being conspirators. The two men, who were handed over to Border Patrol agents to be sent back home, spent about four months in jail awaiting trial.

"This was well worth the fight," said Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, whose office won the conviction of the "coyote," as smugglers are known. "We obtained a conviction of a coyote, and these illegal immigrants did some time for their crimes."

While other illegal immigrants have pleaded guilty under the law, this was the first time a conviction was won by trial.

Ruiz had told a grand jury in March that he had entered the country illegally and drove a smuggling van in exchange for a reduction in his trafficking fee.

Prosecutors said Ruiz profited from driving the van.

Ruiz, who had entered the United States previously to work as a landscaper in California, also had told grand jurors that he drove the smuggling van as a one-time arrangement and wasn't part of a human trafficking organization.

Ruiz's attorney, Adrian Fontes, said there was no evidence that his client profited from the arrangement.

"The jurors truly believed he wasn't anywhere near associated with the organization," Fontes said.

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