By Carol Robinson
on December 28, 2015 at 1:27 PM, updated December 28, 2015 at 1:42 PM

A federal grand jury has indicted two Mexican men accused of getting paid to transport illegal aliens into the U.S. after the pair was stopped last month in Greene County with 11 passengers in their SUV.

Roldan Palacios-Rincon, 31, and Martin Rodriguez-Guadarrama, 33, are charged in a six-count indictment announced today by Joyce White Vance, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama and Raymond R. Parmer Jr., special agent in charge of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.

A complaint filed against the men said the passengers were 11 illegal aliens, four of whom had been previously deported from the U.S., and chronicled the journey of one of them paid thousands of dollars for the trek after having been convicted of two felonies and twice deported. That man, 52-year-old Jeronimo Mejia, is now charged with illegally re-entering the U.S. after being convicted of an aggravated felony and deported.

The investigation began Nov. 9 when an Alabama state trooper initiated a traffic stop on a Chevrolet Suburban with Texas license plates after observing a traffic violation. The traffic stop took place on the eastbound side of Interstate 20/59 near mile marker 55 in Greene County. The trooper identified Palacios-Rincon as the driver and noted there were 12 Hispanic passengers in the vehicle. Rodriguez-Guadarrama was in the front passenger's seat.

Palacios-Rincon didn't have a valid driver's license but provided the trooper with identification documents from Mexico, court records show. The trooper asked him why he had so many illegal aliens in the vehicle, and he said he was being paid $1,000 to drive them to Maryland. He also admitted he had picked up the passengers in Houston.

Inside the vehicle, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency investigators found bags of clothing, food and a clear container that appeared to contain a yellow liquid substance consistent with urine. All were signs, ICE agents said in court documents, of alien smuggling cases. All 13 were taken into custody for processing.

Seven of the passengers were from Mexico, two from Honduras, two from Guatemala and one from El Salvador.

On Nov. 12, agents interviewed several of the passengers including Mejia. He told investigators he paid $2,500 to a "coyote" in Mexico who smuggled him across the border to a house in McAllen, Texas. Eventually, another "coyote" drove him to a house in Austin where he paid an additional $3,000. Yet another "coyote" drove him to Houston and charged him $300. In Houston, Mejia stayed at a relative's house for a few days before contacting a "taxi" that was advertised in the newspaper. Someone came and picked him up and drove him to a local gas station. He paid the "taxi" $150. At the gas station, he was instructed to get into another vehicle and they drove him to another house in Houston where there were about 13 people waiting for a ride. Nobody appeared to live in the house and nobody had any luggage.

Later that night, around midnight, Palacios-Rincon arrived at the house in the Suburban. About nine people left the house in the Suburban, and went to another house where they picked up 3 additional passengers and started their trek across the county. Palacios-Rincon and Rodriguez-Guadarrama swapped driving duties.

Mejia said he was supposed to pay Palacios-Rincon an additional $400 upon arriving in New Jersey. He said a family member was coming to pick him up, and that he would not have been able to leave the vehicle until the remaining balance was paid. Mejia was previously convicted for criminal sexual conduct in New Jersey in 2008, and second-degree possession of a controlled substance in New York in 2011.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/201...uggling_i.html