Feds dismantle smuggling ring that brought in 20,000 illegal immigrants

A smuggling operation that helped bring at least 20,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. has been broken up with the arrests of four Guatemalans.

Authorities described it as one of the most extensive smuggling operations in existence. It specialized in Guatemalans, and it was highly lucrative, charging $15,000 to $18,000 per person to reach the U.S.

Smugglers would hold migrants hostage at a stash house in Los Angeles until they paid, prosecutors said. The operation has been linked to a horrific automobile crash in Oklahoma in 2023 that killed seven illegal immigrants, including a 4-year-old.

One of the four men was accused of threatening to behead a federal agent who was part of a team that served a search warrant last week.

“These smuggling organizations have no regard for human life, and their conduct kills,” said Joseph T. McNally, the acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles who brought the charges.

The indictment, handed up last week, described a sophisticated operation with people working in Guatemala to recruit migrants. It relied on Mexican smuggling operations to get the Guatemalans across that country and the U.S. border and into Arizona.

After that, the Los Angeles-based operation would transport the migrants to Phoenix and then to Los Angeles, where they were held in a stash house in the Westlake neighborhood until their payments were collected.

The $18,000 is on the high side of what illegal immigrants from Central America usually pay.

Authorities said the operation ran for at least 12 years, but the 20,000-person estimate covered those smuggled from 2019 through July 2024. That coincides with migrant surges under President Trump in 2019 and for most of President Biden’s tenure.

Even assuming the lower $15,000 rate for the migrants, that would work out to $300 million over the period. The money was split among various operatives, including the Mexican smugglers, according to the indictment.

The details of the border crossings weren’t revealed in the documents. Given the transportation and stash house operations, those migrants were likely “gotaways” who evaded detection by Border Patrol agents.

Eduardo Domingo Ranoj-Matul, 51, was identified as the operation’s leader. Three of his lieutenants also were charged in a trail of mayhem that spanned state and international boundaries.

Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj and Helmer Obispo-Hernandez are charged with smuggling resulting in death in connection with the Oklahoma crash.

Local authorities in Oklahoma said Paxtor-Oxlaj was driving a group of migrants from New York to Los Angeles at $300 a person when he failed to yield. A Ford F-250 T-boned his vehicle.

Paxtor-Oxlaj was charged locally with manslaughter, and court records indicate he has been convicted.

He also was charged in federal court in Oklahoma with illegal reentry after deportation. Authorities said he was removed in 2010 but sneaked back into the U.S. Court documents indicate that Mr. Obispo-Hernandez was the person who ordered Paxtor-Oxlaj to make the run.

The gang’s intimidation capabilities reached deep into Guatemala, according to court documents.

In one case, a Guatemalan migrant was unable to pay and was kept at a stash house in Los Angeles for a month. To prod him, Mr. Ranoj-Matul showed him a photo someone had taken of his mother back in Guatemala.

In another case, three people showed up at the Guatemalan home of the mother of another illegal immigrant who had struggled to pay. The people were armed and demanded payment, the indictment charged.

Mr. Ranoj-Matul and Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, his top lieutenant, are charged with hostage-taking in connection with those incidents.

The four Guatemalan men are charged with conspiracy to bring aliens to the U.S. and transporting and harboring aliens in the U.S.

They are being held without bond. As of Tuesday, no lawyers were listed in court records for the men.

Mr. Obispo-Hernandez, 41, also is charged with threatening beheadings of a Homeland Security Investigations agent and his family.

Prosecutors said the threat was made Friday when agents were executing a search warrant at Mr. Obispo-Hernandez’s home.