Eight arraigned on human smuggling, financial charges
By Greg Moran
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
5:30 p.m. March 13, 2008

SAN DIEGO – Eight people who authorities said operated a lucrative human smuggling ring since 2001 were arraigned Thursday in federal court on an array of smuggling and financial crimes charges.
A federal grand jury indicted members of the ring March 7, capping a three-month investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

The indictment alleged the ring stuffed illegal immigrants into hidden compartments in dashboards and trunks and smuggled them across the border at San Ysidro.

The group was headed by 38-year-old Maria Castro Juarez of Chula Vista, according to the indictment. In addition to human smuggling charges, she is accused of engaging in financial transactions of more than $10,000 related to human smuggling.

The government is also seeking forfeiture of $598,000 in profits, as well as a house in Chula Vista, which the government says was purchased with smuggling profits.

Also charged were Marisa Melena Mafnas, 33, of Chula Vista; David Montes, 25, of Los Angeles; Julie Hernandez, 33, of Fresno; Randal Mark Panter, 47, of Chula Vista; Lorenzo Pecoraro, 43, of San Diego; Jose Parada Velazquez, 38, of Chula Vista; and John Walter Schuh, 45, of San Diego.
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