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Saturday, February 10, 2007

Witness: Smuggler in shooting tired of being ripped off

FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) - An immigrant smuggler who led one of the most violent episodes in human trafficking in recent years hunted down rival smugglers because they had repeatedly kidnapped his customers, a witness testified Friday at a sentencing hearing.

Jose Angel Molina-Gastelum, a 31-year-old from the west-coast Mexican state of Sinaloa, had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of four people on Interstate 10 near Casa Grande on Nov. 4, 2003.

The attack was retaliation against a smuggling organization that had stolen about 20 illegal immigrants from another group, which eventually tracked down and opened fire on the two moving vehicles that were carrying their customers, authorities said.

Javier Eduardo Martinez-Reyes, who pleaded guilty to one count of attempted first-degree murder in the attack, testified Friday that he, Molina-Gastelum and two other people piled into a van to find their kidnapped customers on I-10.

Molina-Gastelum was upset because the smuggling group that stole his customers had done so on other occasions, according to Martinez-Reyes.

"He wanted to finish with this plague of kidnappers," Martinez-Reyes testified.

The shooting marked the peak of escalating smuggling violence in Arizona and prompted authorities to target human traffickers in metropolitan Phoenix, a hub for sending illegal immigrants to jobs across the country.

Eric Kessler, Molina-Gastelum's attorney, attacked the credibility of the witness, pointing out that Martinez-Reyes had told police initially that he did not fire at the vehicles, then later said he fired one shot.

"It is our position that they are all equally culpable," Kessler said.

Pinal County Superior Court Judge Boyd Johnson said Molina-Gastelum will be sentenced in the coming days but did not give an exact date.

Two other Mexican men traveling in the van with Molina-Gastelum during the attack also have made guilty pleas.

Smugglers kidnap immigrants from rivals so they can hold clients or rivals for ransom. Once family members or sponsors pay the ransom, the immigrants are released and head toward jobs elsewhere in the country.

"The value to the smuggler of an alien load is significant, and for some smugglers, if they can't get a load, they're going go rip off a load," Alonzo Pena, the chief of investigations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona, said in an interview.

The dispute in 2003 began near Marana, Ariz., when two smugglers reported to their trafficking operations in Phoenix that a rival gang had kidnapped about 20 illegal immigrants, all of whom were from Mexico, authorities said.

After learning of the kidnappings, Molina-Gastelum and three others in his group eventually chased down two vehicles near Casa Grande that were carrying their customers and rivals.

Although Molina-Gastelum had denied shooting anyone, one of the men in his van said the leader had instructed others to fire their guns and that Molina-Gastelum and another man emptied 30-round magazines into the two other vehicles, which didn't return fire, authorities said.

Four people, including the driver of one of the two rival vehicles, died. Five others were injured. The shooting also caused a three-vehicle wreck that injured three people not connected to either group.

Even though the shooting led to four deaths, authorities said the damage from the attack could have been worse had it taken place farther north in metro Phoenix, where it could have drawn in other cars into high-speed wrecks.

Martinez-Reyes, 34, and 32-year-old Jorge Madrigal-Molina, also of Sinaloa, are awaiting a March 5 sentencing on their convictions for one count of attempted first-degree murder.

Ignacio Medina-Armenta, who told authorities he was sorry that he shot a person in the attack, was sentenced to a life sentence with the possibility of parole only after completing 25 years of his punishment. Medina-Armenta, 33, had pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder.