Feds, police join forces on drophouses
Human-smuggling task force 1st of its kind
by Sean Holstege - May. 2, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Last fall, 17 illegal immigrants fled a west Phoenix drophouse after beating their captor's head with a clothing rod.

Last month, that coyote, Arturo Nevarez-Ugarte, was sentenced to 31 years in prison for tying up his human cargo and threatening to kill them at gunpoint if their families didn't pay ransom.

The investigative team that made the case, the first team of its kind in the country, spotlights a new strategy:

Raiding drophouses and tracking down all those involved to dismantle the most vicious human-smuggling rings.

The recently formed task force of federal, state and local detectives, called IIMPACT Arizona, dispatches investigators from its Phoenix headquarters when they get word that people are beaten, raped or shot at a drophouse. Detectives interrogate immigrants to identify and prosecute the coyotes. The team also builds files on who owns, runs and profits from such drophouses.

So far, the task force has probed 25 drophouses and arrested 81 coyotes, 71 felony suspects and 374 illegal immigrants.

"I'm confident that we've identified all the coyotes at every drophouse we've busted," said Arizona Department of Public Safety Lt. Timothy Chung, who commands the squad. So far, all of the coyotes arrested have been convicted.


Human-smuggling grows

The task force melds squads of detectives from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, DPS and the Phoenix Police Department.

The effort reflects a growing recognition that human-smuggling has become so prevalent and violent that ICE doesn't have enough agents to work alone.

In another effort, ICE has opened in Phoenix the nation's first center to collect, analyze and share immigration-intelligence leads among agencies. The center is expected to be fully staffed with specialists from about half a dozen agencies within two months, said ICE Assistant Special-Agent-in-Charge Patricia Schmidt.

Arizona is a natural place to launch cooperative efforts because the level of violence and expansion of drophouses eclipses other border cities, she said. IIMPACT, which stands for Illegal Immigration Prevention and Apprehension Co-op Teams, runs on a $10 million budget from state funds. Today, the task force will unveil its headquarters where investigators share case files and databases, and jail, process and interrogate illegal immigrants who can help them unravel smuggling networks.

Investigators say many local police departments are unaware that IIMPACT has been making cases since last fall and working under one roof since January.

"We are not getting used to our full potential," Chung said.

Murder, rape, assault, kidnapping and extortion are common charges brought by IIMPACT teams.

"We are seeing a spike in the number of violent cases, and we see a lot of smaller smuggling cells forming - one for holding illegal immigrants, one for ransoming them and one for transporting them," Chung said.

The state plans to add a team of financial investigators to get a better understanding of who owns the estimated 2,000 drophouses reported in the Valley since 2000.

Detectives are delving into one house that was used twice to hide illegal immigrants.

Typically, a drophouse outlives its usefulness to smugglers after two or three months because neighbors become suspicious.

Houses are often rented at inflated rates for cash under the table, a form of bribe, to naive landlords or those willing to look the other way.

In the meantime, investigators have trained their focus on people like Nevarez-Ugarte.

"It isn't about the (illegal) aliens. It's about the violence," Schmidt said, describing cases in which young girls are raped while their parents listen on the phone or children are hooded and pistol-whipped. "These smuggling organizations have no value for human life."


Reach the reporter at sean .holstege@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8334.

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