San Antonio human smuggling case may go federal after 26 rescued from stash house
SAN ANTONIO - An update on a human smuggling bust on the South Side last week.Twenty-six undocumented migrants were rescued after being found in a stash house, A human smuggling bust in San Antonio resulted in 26 undocumented migrants being rescued from a stash house. The case may be taken to federal level if it meets the threshold to disrupt the criminal organization. Homeland Security Investigations, the primary Criminal Investigative organization for the Department of Homeland Security, is assisting with the investigation. The smuggling ring was busted when a flatbed truck carrying undocumented migrants was stopped. Most of the smuggled migrants cross the border on foot before being transported to smaller vehicles. Some end up in stash houses like one in Eagle Pass where an alleged coyote or smuggler was murdered. The operation is still under review.
게시됨 : 10개월 전 ~에 의해 https://www.facebook.com/news4sa, SBG San Antonio Staff Reports ~에 General
SAN ANTONIO - An update on a human smuggling bust on the South Side last week.
Twenty-six undocumented migrants were rescued after being found in a stash house, with 12 of them ending up in the hospital.
Now, we determine if the case ends up in the hands of the feds.
Some say human smuggling is a victimless crime, but as we have shown you time and time again, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
After a flatbed truck was found to be carrying undocumented migrants in a hidden compartment was stopped last Thursday a human smuggling ring was busted. The flatbed was pulled into an address on Oak Island Drive by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. That's where the 26 migrants were found.
The case is still under review. Homeland Security Investigations responded to the incident and is helping with the investigation. Sometimes a human smuggling case may start with a state or local agency, but it may end up going federal if the illegal activity meets the threshold to maximize the impact and dismantle the criminal organization.
"We spend a lot of time on human smuggling," said Craig Larrabe, the Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations for the San Antonio operating area.
"As Homeland Security Investigations, we're the primary Criminal Investigative organization for the Department of Homeland Security. So we conduct criminal investigations for anything that's crossing the border, whether it's people or goods that are illegally crossing the border, we have a vast array of offenses over 400 statutes that we're responsible for investigating," stated Larrabee.
Homeland Security Investigations or HSI has 10 groups dedicated to human smuggling in this area. Larabee says that most of the smuggled migrants first cross on foot through the border, through areas like Laredo, Eagle Pass, and Terrell County.
"Historically, as I mentioned, we're the busiest station between Del Rio and El Paso," he said.
Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland says his deputies, along with Border Patrol, try to stop as many undocumented migrants as possible, but the ones they don't stop are picked up by smaller vehicles right after they cross. "Right now, what we see is mainly Mexican adult men that crossed our portion of the border, we will have a few females and if we have juveniles are typically accompanied by a father and uncle, a cousin, or something like that," Cleveland stated.
After being moved into smaller vehicles, some end up in stash houses like one in Eagle Pass where an alleged coyote or smuggler was murdered late last year. Sometimes, they wait for the migrants' families to send more money to the coyote who usually try to extort more money than the agreed price to smuggle the person.
The coyote in Eagle Pass ended up dead after the grandfather of two women he had allegedly smuggled traveled from Florida after he said the criminal organization was trying to get more money to free his granddaughters.
Those who continue their journey to the bigger cities like San Antonio, which is a hub for human trafficking, in some cases, end up braving the summer heat in the most unimaginable and inhumane way.
"The migrants are really treated very poorly, but where they're staged for a period of time until the next part of that organization can move the migrants to the next spot. Now obviously, there's a lot of difference. Some places where we have concerns, especially in the heat. In the back of a tractor-trailer, obviously, we've seen how tragically, that can occur," added Larrabe.
"How important is it for you to get every single piece of evidence out of that truck that you can?" Larrabe responded "It is the most important thing for us to collect as much evidence at the time of that crime. Now, when you have a tractor-trailer incident, you have a mass casualty event, it's very difficult because your primary mission for all law enforcement and emergency response is the protection and preservation of life.
"But also our secondary concern, which is really our primary mission, is to gather the evidence to ensure a successful prosecution of as many people that are involved in that organization as possible. And we have a lot of experience with this," he said.
As of today, it has not been decided if last week's incident where 26 migrants were found under the truck will be prosecuted state-side or on the federal side
주제: Crime, Smuggling, Human Trafficking