Human smugglers showing violent upswing, ICE says
Houston raids reveal drug gangs' savage attacks on illegal immigrants
By SUSAN CARROLL
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
July 5, 2010, 9:54PM


The smuggler, nicknamed "El Pelon," Baldy, forced the 11 illegal immigrants to strip naked shortly after they arrived at the southwest Houston stash house, hoping to complicate any plans for escape.

He and the other smugglers led the men up a staircase to a room on the second floor.And there, they lived in what one Honduran immigrant described as a "state of terror" for days while the smugglers attempted to extort more money from their relatives to secure their release.

One man said a smuggler stepped on his chest until blood came from his mouth. He was beaten, wrapped in a trash bag and left in a closet. The men said they were made to do "bad things," sexual acts, to one another by El Pelon, who would take pictures with his cell phone and send them to his friends, according to court records.

By the time Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials rescued the immigrants last August, one of the immigrants held at the house told agents he was contemplating jumping from the second-story window.

ICE Assistant Special Agent Sean McElroy said in the past year investigators have seen an upswing in cases involving weapons and an escalation in the level of violence in Houston's human smuggling trade. McElroy said ICE does not specifically track instances of smuggling-related violence, though he rattled off a string of recent cases to prove his point. There was the bust that rescued the 11 illegal immigrants from El Pelon and his accomplices, a case scheduled for trial in federal court this fall.

Last summer, ICE agents rescued two women from a northwest Houston apartment who said they were raped daily at gunpoint by several smugglers. At a stash house allegedly used by the same smugglers, ICE agents recovered a 12-guage shotgun, a Remington rifle and three semi-automatic pistols.

And then there was the rip-off-gone-wrong in March that resulted in a shootout in north Houston with smugglers and left a would-be kidnapper in the hospital with six bullet wounds. At the stash house, agents found a loaded AK-47 and two handguns, spent shell casings and a pool of blood.

Frightening trend
"I think these guys have always had firearms, but now they see a need to use them, and they have no fear to use them," McElroy said. "It's not just to intimidate, but to wreak havoc on other smugglers, and just try to make money."

Experts on human smuggling stressed that smuggling-related violence is not a new phenomenon, though some said increases in the boldness and savageness of attacks hints at a troubling trend.

Rey Koslowski, an associate professor of political science at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, said the increase is partially due to the buildup along the Southwest border during the past two decades. In the early 1990s, most illegal immigrants crossed the border near major border cities like Brownsville and San Diego, making their way north often without using smugglers.

But after the U.S. government cracked down on illegal immigration in late 1990s, crossing the border illegally through major cities became more difficult, and more and more illegal immigrants started relying on smugglers to guide them through increasingly remote terrain to avoid the U.S. Border Patrol.

Koslowski said that also resulted in an increase in the fees the smugglers charged, from a few hundred dollars in the 1990s to $2,500 to $3,000 today. As the profit potential increased, organized drug smuggling operations started to get involved and "changed the nature of human smuggling," Koslowski said.

"Once you start dealing with drugs, you start dealing with people who have semi-automatic weapons and more violence," said Koslowski, who coedited the book "Global Human Smuggling: a Comparative Perspective." "We have nastier people involved in this. It's much more ruthless."

Exorting the maximum
McElroy said most of the smuggling violence is simply about the bottom line. Smugglers or kidnappers try to extort as much money from the family members of illegal immigrants as possible, even if it means beatings or worse, he said.

"They just look at these people basically as a commodity," he said. "They have no concept of human life."

But McElroy was at a loss to explain what happened in the stash house on the city's southwest side, where the 11 illegal immigrants were held last August. Court records show that the immigrants told investigators El Pelon taped their mouths shut, beat them and stepped on their faces, according to court records.

And the smuggler made them do unspeakable, humiliating things, they told investigators.

"What does that even serve?" McElroy asked. "That's not a business decision."

ICE agents caught three suspected smugglers in the house during the late-night raid last August. Two have pleaded guilty, and one is scheduled for trial this fall.

El Pelon wasn't home when agents busted into the stash house with their search warrant. So far, he has escaped prosecution.

susan.carroll@chron.com



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