Four People Charged In Alleged Smuggling Ring

POSTED: 7:17 pm PDT July 3, 2007
UPDATED: 8:01 pm PDT July 3, 2007

SAN DIEGO -- A federal grand jury in San Diego handed up a 19-count superseding indictment Tuesday charging four people with conspiracy, bringing in illegal immigrants for financial gain and harboring aliens.

The charges against Gloria Eugenia Leon-Aldana, Juan Andres-Santos, Agustin Alonso-Terrero and Mario Antonio Antunez-Sotelo arise from the defendants' alleged activities in 2006 as part of a smuggling operation.

Prosecutors allege the ring recruited Mexican nationals under false pretenses, then smuggled them into the United States and used physical threats to make them work for the ring's benefit.

The superseding indictment specifically alleges that Andres-Santos and Alonso-Terrero smuggled the aliens into the United States from Mexico after Antunez-Sotelo recruited them at their homes in Mexico.

After the aliens were brought into the United States, they were harbored in apartments controlled by Leon-Aldana and Antunez-Sotelo, court papers allege.

Leon-Aldana and Antunez-Sotelo compelled the Mexican nationals to work by, among other things, threatening to physically harm them or their families in Mexico.

Leon-Aldana, Andres-Santos and Alonso Terrero are in custody and are expected to be arraigned later this week, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Tenorio.

Antunez-Sotelo remains at large, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

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