http://kutv.com/local/local_story_321175525.html

Nov 17, 2005 3:48 pm US/Mountain

Mexican Couple Charged In Immigrant Smuggling Case

SALT LAKE CITY A couple was indicted Thursday on charges of smuggling two girls and a young woman into Utah for $1,700 apiece, then extorting them for a higher fee of $2,800 with threats of killing their relatives in Mexico.

A 14-year-old girl was picked up at a job where she worked 12 hours a night, six days a week.

Armando Gutierrez-Valencia, 40, and his wife, Martina Ernestina Gutierrez, 49, were indicted for smuggling and harboring illegal aliens, identity fraud and cocaine possession. The Mexican couple, who are also in the U.S. illegally, were accused of providing the other Mexican nationals with fraudulent immigration documents.

The couple was arrested Thursday and will be arraigned in U.S. District Court next Wednesday.

The investigation began with a tip to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the women were being held at a West Valley City home. There investigators found fraudulent social security and identification documents, cocaine and more than $11,000 in cash.

The women – 14, 16 and 24 years old – told agents they crossed the Mexican border and stayed a week in Phoenix. On a drive to Utah, they were told they'd have to pay $2,800 instead of $1,700 for transportation and housing. In Utah, they were given $40 or $50 apiece for food and clothing.

``This just underscores the ruthlessness and greed that are characteristic of the human smuggling trade,'' said Joseph Romel, assistant special-agent-in-charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Salt Lake City. ``To those involved, these people aren't human. They're a commodity being smuggled for profit.''

Romel said the three immigrants were part of a group of nine who set out from a Phoenix drop house. The other six reportedly were being held at a different West Valley City house, but that house was empty by time agents got there, Romel said.

If convicted, Gutierrez-Valenci and his wife could each face up to 20 years in federal prison on the drug charges; up to 10 years apiece for harboring illegal aliens. In addition, aggravated identity fraud carries a mandatory minimum of two years and a three-year mandatory minimum sentence could be imposed for bringing in illegal aliens.

The three women have been placed in federal protective custody.