Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    California or ground zero of the invasion
    Posts
    16,029

    Men accused of holding 20 people in 1-bedroom apartment

    http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14501102.htm

    Posted on Thu, May. 04, 2006


    Men accused of holding 20 people in 1-bedroom apartment

    CHARLES WILSON
    Associated Press

    INDIANAPOLIS - Three men smuggled about 20 undocumented immigrants into the United States, then held them in a one-bedroom apartment and threatened to kill them if they tried to leave, a prosecutor said Thursday.

    Sergio Felix-Martinez, 29, Jose Palacios, 33, and Rolando Marcial-Hernandez, 26, were each charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, intimidation and criminal confinement, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said in a news release. Palacios also faces charges of attempted kidnapping and attempted criminal confinement.

    Federal immigration officials were trying to determine where the three suspects are from and whether they were in the United States legally.

    "I doubt that they are," Brizzi said.

    According to a probable cause affidavit, one of the smuggled immigrants told police that in April, he approached a so-called "coyote" to bring him across the Mexico border into the United States. The immigrant agreed to pay $1,500 once he reached Pennsylvania, the affidavit said.

    Smugglers initially took the man to Phoenix and later to Indianapolis in a van with about 20 other Hispanic men and women, court documents said.

    Once in Indianapolis, the suspects held the people in the upstairs apartment and fed them only one egg a day, the affidavit said. The suspects demanded increasing amounts of money, threatened to kill the people, telling them they would be arrested and deported if they escaped, Brizzi said.

    Brizzi acknowledged that the immigrants were brought into the country illegally, but said that was a concern for immigration officials, not the prosecutor's office.

    "A victim is a victim is a victim, whether they're here illegally or not," he said.

    One of the immigrants, 28-year-old Manuel Flores, escaped while the suspects were out of the apartment on May 1, Brizzi said. A relative in Pennsylvania wired him money to buy a bus ticket.

    Brizzi said the three men found Flores at the bus station in Indianapolis and tried to force him to return to the apartment, but a Marion County Sheriff's deputy working as a security guard overheard them and police intervened.

    Flores is staying with relatives in Pennsylvania, and Marion County authorities have asked immigration officials not to deport him.

    Authorities are not sure if the suspects might have been part of a larger human smuggling operation. About 20,000 people are believed to be smuggled into the United States every year, according to Justice Department estimates.

    Brizzi said it was not clear if the immigrants were to have been forced into labor or prostitution.

    Investigators also were uncertain of the nationalities of all the immigrants, who have yet to be located. Some were believed to have been taken to Chicago or Atlanta.

    Residents of the southside Indianapolis apartment complex were startled by the allegations and said they had no idea anything had been happening so close by.

    "That's terrible. That is just horrible," said Betty Schmidt, 52, a homemaker who said she passes the apartment every day on her walks.

    Valerie Davis, 26, a nurse whose rear balcony faces the apartment across the street, said she never saw or heard anything unusual.

    "You see people all day long come and go," she said with a shrug.
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Joliet, Il
    Posts
    10,175
    That's sick. Hope those coyotes get exactly what they deserve.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Heart of Dixie
    Posts
    36,012
    It is happening every day somewhere in this country.
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  4. #4
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    California or ground zero of the invasion
    Posts
    16,029
    http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... 50505/1006

    May 5, 2006


    Immigrants were held captive, police say
    20 still missing after fight blew smugglers' cover, prosecutor says

    By Vic Ryckaert
    vic.ryckaert@indystar.com
    May 5, 2006


    More than 20 people are possibly being held hostage in Indianapolis by a cross-country network that smuggled illegal immigrants into the U.S. from Meixco for a fee and then imprisoned them for more money, police say.
    Police said they uncovered one of the smuggling ring's way stations on the city's Far Southside this week. They arrested three men and rescued one immigrant.

    But the other immigrants kept in a one-bedroom apartment have not been found, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said, and are still being held by the smugglers.

    "This is just the tip of the iceberg. We're going to investigate this with full vigor," Brizzi said of the first case of immigrant smuggling he has prosecuted.

    The ring probably would have remained undiscovered if a fight hadn't broken out at the Greyhound bus depot Monday.

    For Manual Flores, 28, the brawl brought an end to a saga that began April 10 in Mexico. According to court records, he was among two dozen people so desperate to work in the United States that they each agreed to pay at least $1,500 to be smuggled into the country.

    They began their journey with a two-day walk through remote parts of Mexico and into the United States. Once inside the country, they were forced into trucks, hauled to a house in Phoenix with blanket-covered windows and told they could not leave.

    That's when the smugglers raised their price. Court records say a man named Oscar pointed a gun at Flores and demanded $2,500. Flores persuaded a cousin in Mexico to wire him $1,500.

    On April 26, Flores and 22 other immigrants were driven to Indianapolis.
    All 23 were forced into a one-bedroom apartment on the Far Southside, where they were denied showers and fresh clothes and given one egg a day to eat.

    The suspects threatened to kill anyone who tried to leave and told the immigrants they would be deported if they went to the police..

    When his captors left the apartment Monday, Flores escaped. He found help from people who were not identified in the court papers. They took him to their home, gave him food and let him use their phone to call a relative in Pennsylvania.

    The good Samaritans took Flores to the Greyhound station for a bus to Pennsylvania.

    While they waited for the bus about 7:30 p.m., three men came up to Flores and told him he was coming with them.

    One man, who is believed to remain at large, grabbed Flores and head-butted him. The scuffle drew the attention of a security guard, off-duty Deputy Anthony Bell of the Marion County Sheriff's Department.
    Bell came running, and two of the suspects bolted. He caught Jose DeJesus Palacios, 33.

    Police headed for the Greentree Apartments near Stop 10 Road and Madison Avenue.

    Police found suspects Rolando Marcial-Hernandez, 24, and Sergio Felix-Martinez, 29, at the neatly kept apartment complex.
    But Brizzi said the captive immigrants were gone. Local and federal authorities are searching for them and their captors.

    Thursday, Brizzi filed kidnapping and other charges against Marcial-Hernandez, Felix-Martinez and Palacios. They are being held in the Marion County Jail.

    If convicted, Palacios could face a sentence of 40 to 100 years in prison; the two others could face 20 to 50 years.
    Flores is in Pennsylvania with relatives.

    Heather Cooper, 19, who lives next to the apartment with her 2-year-old son and fiance, said she heard lots of noise from next door, and the people seemed rudeand shady.

    "They were always trying to pick fights with everybody."
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •