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SAN JUAN — A 16-year-old Mexican girl was forced into household labor, deprived of food and shelter and raped six times by the man who smuggled her into this country, according to authorities. Benito Vargas, 17, is accused of raping the Jalisco native on several occasions while his mother ignored the girl’s cries for help, San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez said. The girl, who was smuggled into the United States on claims she would have a better life here, was also beaten on several occasions, was rarely fed and was forced to sleep on a couch outside while she...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, December 17, 2009 Guyanese National Charged with Smuggling Indian Nationals to the United States A Guyanese national has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and alien smuggling in connection with her role in the smuggling or attempted smuggling of four Indian nationals to the United States. Annita Devi Gerald, aka Annita Rampersad, 52, was charged in a nine-count indictment returned yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas. Gerald was arrested by ICE special agents in Houston on Nov. 17, 2009, and has been held without...

Three Houston residents have been arrested and accused of transporting illegal immigrants after a pickup truck carrying the people plunged 40 feet from a roadway and injured them in Jim Wells County in South Texas. Patricio Rebollar Jr., 28, Herman Valdez, 29, and Nancy Martinez, 25, are charged in a criminal complaint with transporting undocumented immigrants, according to federal authorities. Of the 17 undocumented immigrants in the accident, five remain hospitalized with serious injuries and the others have been treated at hospitals and released into federal custody. Rebollar, who was allegedly driving the pickup, was hospitalized with unknown injuries.

<p>Deputies say the four Chinese citizens were inside the van along with the driver, a resident of Mexico City. By Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) _ Authorities say a traffic stop in a Phoenix suburb has led to the detention of four Chinese citizens suspected of entering the country illegally.</p>

The busiest border crossing in the country was open again Wednesday morning after closing for hours during a shootout between federal agents and vans suspected of smuggling illegal immigrants into California from Mexico. Four were injured and traffic was stopped for four hours Tuesday near San Diego after the border patrol agents fired shots at the vehicles across nine lanes of highway. The 74 people crowded into the three vans were taken into federal custody. San Diego police spokesman Lt. Kevin Rooney said Tuesday the drivers tried to storm past inspectors at the San Ysidro port of entry — which...

U.S. authorities have closed the San Ysidro Port of Entry on the border with Mexico after a gunfight there early Tuesday. San Ysidro is the nation's busiest border crossing. Roughly 40,000 vehicles cross there daily from Mexico. Three vans loaded with suspected illegal immigrants tried to speed through the crossing Tuesday afternoon, drawing gunfire from at least two U.S. agents, authorities said. Three people in the vans and a traveler in a nearby car were injured in the failed attempt to cross into San Diego from Tijuana. About 70 people inside the vehicles were taken into custody, according to authorities.

Fired ACORN employee called police A local ACORN employee filmed talking about human smuggling reported the incident to a police detective who was his cousin. Juan Carlos Vera contacted his cousin two days after the incident for advice on what to do with information he obtained regarding possible human smuggling, National City police said in a news release Monday. The detective contacted another law enforcement officer serving on a federal human smuggling task force, who responded that he needed more details. The ACORN employee explained several days later the information was wrong and he had been duped. Vera was secretly...

ACORN Prostitution Tour San Diego--More Videos Hannah Giles and James O' Keefe our hero fake pimp and hooker, took their tour from northern California to the south, San Diego on the border with Mexico. Here they met with a Juan Carlos a very creepy, ACORN worker who tried to pick up Hanna and offered to help the pair smuggle in the child prostitutes from El Salvador. You See he smuggles people over the border all the time. In probably the most uncomfortable moment in all of the videos, the Juan Carlos asks Hannah where she lives and how much does...

"I have a lot of contacts in Tijuana."

<p>PHOENIX (AP) - An Arizona officer who stopped a refrigerated trailer found nearly 100 undocumented immigrants crammed inside in near-freezing temperatures.</p> <p>A tip from federal agents led the Department of Public Safety officer to make the stop to check for faulty equipment Wednesday night on Interstate 19 north of Nogales near the Mexico border.</p>

McALLEN – Three men already in federal custody have been linked to the kidnapping, torture and ransom of hundreds of Central American migrants in Reynosa, federal authorities said. Two Honduran nationals held on immigration charges in Willacy County recognized one of the suspected smugglers July 10 after he was booked into the county jail, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in their case. One of the detained immigrants told U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents that he had met Oscar Humberto Hilton Romero, 31, of Honduras, in Guatemala and then followed him to a Reynosa stash house, where he...

CORPUS CHRISTI — A man was sentenced to 17.5 years in federal prison Thursday for his involvement in an illegal immigrant smuggling conspiracy that resulted in the deaths of three people in Duval County. Frank Garcia, 30, of Pasadena, pleaded guilty of transporting illegal immigrants from Mexico into the U.S., according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson. On Nov. 24, Garcia delivered a van carrying eight people to smugglers outside Concepcion, according to the release. Garcia then drove a lead vehicle while the van followed. During law enforcement’s pursuit of the vehicles, the van crashed and caught...

SONOITA, Ariz. — Ten undocumented immigrants "stacked like wood" in the back of a sports utility vehicle crammed with at least 22 people were killed when the driver lost control and rolled over on a remote southern Arizona highway, authorities said Sunday.

Ten people "stacked like wood" in the back of a sports-utility vehicle were killed when the driver lost control on a remote southeastern Arizona highway, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety said Sunday.DPS Officer Joy Craig said at least 27 men and women were in the vehicle traveling on State Route 82 about four miles east of Sonoita when the vehicle rolled for an unknown reason shortly before midnight Saturday.Most of the vehicle's passengers were ejected.Authorities said all the victims are believed to be illegal immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Equador and perhaps Mexico."There was no...

<p>SONOITA, Ariz. — Ten undocumented immigrants "stacked like wood" in the back of a sports utility vehicle crammed with at least 22 people were killed when the driver lost control and rolled over on a remote southern Arizona highway, authorities said Sunday.</p>

No civilized sane human would support slavery so how does trafficking in humans for sex continue worldwide? The practice is growing, but hundreds declared in Tulsa Friday that they will stand in opposition. They will contribute time and money to raise awareness and save victims. They will engage to stop this hidden smuggling that goes on in every one of the 50 states in America.

The owner of the Los Angeles-based Numero Uno supermarket chain was convicted today of participating in a racketeering enterprise that was involved in a host of illegal activities, including solicitation of murder, bribery of a public official, harboring illegal aliens and tax violations. George Torres, 52, an Arcadia resident who has been in custody since he was arrested after being indicted two years ago, was found guilty of 55 felony counts, including racketeering, “honest services” mail fraud and wire fraud, conspiring to harbor illegal aliens, and a host of tax charges. The jury determined that Torres solicited the February 1994...

An alleged abduction in southwest Houston earlier this week appears to be part of human smuggling operation that was thwarted when the victim jumped from his kidnappers' car on a freeway near downtown. Six men, including the victim and his relatives as well as three suspects, were arrested following a brief police chase. No injuries were reported. Federal immigration authorities said the men were in the country illegally and were involved in a human trafficking plot. However, officials declined to discuss details of the case because the investigation is ongoing. The names of the men have not been released. "It's...

Women and girls as young as 16 were smuggled into this country from Mexico and brought to Charlotte to work as prostitutes. For $25 and $30, authorities said, they performed sex acts – sometimes with 20 men a day. Jorge Flores Rojas, a 44-year- old undocumented Mexican national accused of running the sex trafficking ring, has been sentenced in Charlotte to 24 years in prison, authorities said Tuesday. He was ordered to pay $117,000 in restitution to one woman. He also must register as a sex offender. Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Ryan said Tuesday that prostitution rings like the one...

Palermo, 3 April (AKI) SNIPPET: "Over 36,000 boat people arrived on the southern Italian coast last year - a 75 per cent increase over the number of arrivals in 2007 - according to the Italian government and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR)."

A woman was allegedly kidnapped as part of a suspected human smuggling operation in Tustin on Saturday evening, police said. The 32-year-old woman's alleged abduction is believed by police to be in response to a dispute over payment for human smuggling. Officers are not yet sure what country the alleged victim came from, but said it might be Guatemala.

A Sullivan City man accused of smuggling three Iraqis into the United States was set to appear for a detention hearing Thursday. Prosecutors allege Juan De Dios Martinez Vela, 28, sneaked the men across the Rio Grande as part of a smuggling network with links to the Middle East.

The leader of the Three Franciscos, a ring accused of transporting more than 9,000 illegal immigrants through Los Angeles and around the country, was sentenced to six years in federal prison Monday. Federal officials called the organization the most prolific of its kind ever uncovered in Los Angeles, collecting fees as high as $3,700 from relatives of immigrants who were packed into cramped vans and safe houses. "We estimated they were moving about 100 a week," said Jennifer Silliman, deputy special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles. The group was known as the Three...

PHOENIX -- A raid at a suspected Avondale drop house Thursday night resulted in the rescue of more than two dozen hostages, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. A SWAT team raided the house on Joblanca Street at 6:30 p.m. after receiving a call from a Tennessee resident concerned that a family member was being held captive in a home, deputies said. Inside, deputies found 30 suspected illegal immigrants, among them 25 hostages who were being held for ransom, the sheriff's office said. According to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the hostages were held from 3-24 days and had...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0902/090224losangeles.htm February 24, 2009 Former LAX elevator mechanic sentenced to 3 years for human smuggling LOS ANGELES - An elevator mechanic formerly employed by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for smuggling foreign nationals into the United States by bypassing established security at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Roberto Amaya Canchola, 54, was sentenced yesterday as part of a plea agreement in which he admitted earning $1,800 for each illegal alien he ushered into airport elevators and escorted to taxis outside the terminal. Canchola was...

NATIONAL GANG THREAT SUMMARY Gangs pose a serious threat to public safety in many communities throughout the United States. Gang members are increasingly migrating from urban to suburban areas and are responsible for a growing per- centage of crime and violence in many communities. Much gang-related criminal activity involves drug trafficking; however, gang members are increasingly engaging in alien and weapons trafficking. Additionally, a rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships with U.S.- and foreign-based drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and other criminal organizations to gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs.

It was just reported on the show KFI Los Angeles that George W. Bush has pardoned an individual named John Allen Aregood of Riviera, Texas, who was apparently convicted of conspiracy to harbor and transport illegal aliens.

EDINBURG — Mario Olivares Cifuentes thought he understood the risks of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Tales of migrants drowning in the Rio Grande or succumbing to the oppressive South Texas sun spread frequently among those hoping to make the trek. But for Olivares, a Guatemalan migrant, the real danger emerged only after passing those natural perils. For almost a day, he and 20 of his countrymen were allegedly kidnapped, tortured, raped and held for ransom in a stash house east of Edinburg before federal agents rescued them last week. Their purported tormentors — a group of Mexican nationals believed...

McALLEN, Texas — Four illegal immigrants were found in the back of a Wal-Mart truck, and the driver and two alleged accomplices were accused of trying to smuggle them through a Border Patrol checkpoint. Authorities acting on a tip arrested driver Alejandro Hernandez and two other suspects Thursday just south of a checkpoint at Falfurrias, authorities said. The four Mexican nationals in the trailer were also taken into custody. Documents filed in federal court Monday allege that Hernandez, 50, unloaded a delivery at a Wal-Mart in McAllen, then stopped at a truck stop in nearby Edinburg where he picked up...

WASHINGTON — Florida Rep. Allen Boyd's son was arrested in Arizona Sunday and charged with human smuggling after K-9 dogs allegedly sniffed out individuals hiding in the bed of his truck. John F. Boyd attempted to drive through a Border Patrol security check in Willcox, court documents revealed, according to KVOA-TV in Phoenix. Five illegal aliens, including a 6-year-old girl, were found in the truck. The criminal complaint obtained by KVOA states, "At the primary inspection area, a Border Patrol K-9 alerted to the possible presence of illegal aliens in the bed of the truck. A primary inspection agent approached...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The son of U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd is facing alien smuggling charges in Arizona. The Democratic congressman, who is seeking a seventh term this November, said Tuesday that his 30-year-old son, John Boyd, was arrested Sunday on the human trafficking charges. In a statement from his office, Congressman Boyd said his son is a grown man and must face the consequences for his actions but has the support of the family. Boyd is being challenged by Panama City Republican Mark Mulligan in the Nov. 4 general election.

SAN DIEGO – Forty-nine people being smuggled into the United States were found Friday morning packed inside the metal tank of a water truck a Border Patrol agent noticed near the notorious Smuggler's Gulch. The truck was coming out of a construction area, its driver apparently trying to blend in, when the agent saw it didn't have a license plate, said Border Patrol Agent Jason Rodgers, a spokesman for the agency. Rodgers said the agent followed the truck from Monument Road and Hollister Road in an under-the-speed-limit pursuit that ended not far away with the arrest of the driver and...

SAN DIEGO – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are trying to reach out to human smuggling victims through advertisements featured in major cities, including San Diego. Advertisements posted on billboards and transit shelters with the slogan, “Hidden in Plain Sight” were put on display in June around San Diego county. The goal is to educate the public about the existence of human trafficking in the country and urge them to report such crimes, officials said. “These victims are domestic servants, sweat shop employees, sex workers and others lured here by the promise of prosperity, then forced to work without...

MISSION -- Police busted a stash house Tuesday after a Honduran woman said she was sexually assaulted there. Officers raided the house -- at 2113 Sierra Court, near Mission Veterans Memorial High School on Mile 2 North and N. Mayberry Ave. -- about 11:25 a.m. Police had found the woman wandering along a nearby road in the wee hours earlier that morning. Police pulled over to see if she was OK and she told them she had been sexually assaulted at the brick house, Mission police spokesman Lt. Martin Garza said. The house likely sheltered illegal immigrants traveling north, he...

CALEXICO — Two street gangs vying for control of a human-smuggling operation here has resulted in two shootings in a dense neighborhood near the border fence, police said. A man is recovering from a bullet wound after being shot by masked gunmen. Two other men are in Imperial County jail for their suspected involvement of an attempt to murder a rival. “We be-lieve it involves illegal alien smuggling and their attempts to cut into each other’s area and operations,” Calexico police Sgt. Gonzalo Gerardo said. Human smuggling in Calexico is lucrative: smugglers could receive as much as $1,500 per head...

A Kennesaw pastor was sentenced to nine years in prison Tuesday for her part in a profitable multi-state scheme to encourage illegal immigrants to file untruthful visa applications. The Rev. Emma Gerald, 56, was convicted in December of helping mostly Brazilian immigrants in Cobb County, Florida and other states file applications for temporary residency, work permits, and travel permits. "I'd like to apologize to the United States," Gerald said at her sentencing hearing Tuesday in Atlanta at the U.S. Federal District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Gerald said she "didn't think it was wrong," when she charged illegal...

An illegal immigrant pleads guilty to driving other illegal immigrants across the country for money. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Pedro Antonio Antonio Mateo admitted to the crime in Roanoke Federal Court today (Wednesday, May 21st). 10 On Your Side’s Scott Leamon first uncovered the case, after a State Police Trooper pulled Mateo over on I-81 in Botetourt Co. back in April.  Investigators say Mateo was driving a large SUV on I-81 northbound, past Troutville. Officers with the state police criminal interdiction team stopped the SUV, after an alleged traffic violation on April 11th. Federal court records show agents from...

LA JOYA - Dramatic police chases with illegal immigrant-crammed trucks are common place in this small city. That pursuit, however, has often ended in dangerous chases with the desperate human smugglers widely known as coyotes. Again on Tuesday, just east of La Joya, a coyote led Peñitas police on an early morning chase that crossed four cities and ended in a crash after the driver refused to pull over for erratically changing lanes on Expressway 83. Four Honduran illegal immigrants were taken to the hospital with broken bones and other minor injuries after the vehicle they were traveling in blew...

18 illegal immigrants in van in path of 18-wheeler RACHAL - U.S. Border Patrol agent Adam Ruiz had to act fast as the van full of illegal immigrants veered into the path of a hurtling 18-wheeler. Should he pursue the vehicle's driver, who bailed out on the shoulder of U.S. 281 and left the van's gear in drive? Or chase down the van and its occupants as they edged closer and closer into oncoming traffic? In seconds, Ruiz sprang into action. The eight-year agency veteran bolted toward the moving vehicle, leaped through the passenger side door and steered the vehicle...

Monday, 31 March 2008 ICE-led probe results in criminal and civil forfeitures of more than $1 million PHOENIX - A federal judge has sentenced the last of the 13 owners and former owners of six motels in Mesa, Ariz., who were indicted after a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed they were using their businesses to harbor illegal aliens in support of organized human smuggling. U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Martone imposed sentences of probation, fines and forfeiture on the final two defendants in the case March 26. The owners of the motels on Mesa's Main Street...

McALLEN - Human smugglers are employing increasingly risky and dangerous methods to transport illegal immigrants since security tightened along the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement officials said. "They're getting less area they can successfully enter," said Oscar Saldaña, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman. "That's why were seeing more of these desperate acts. And unfortunately, we anticipate there's going to be more of these types of events." On Thursday a Ford F-150 carrying more than 20 illegal immigrants collided with another vehicle on Expressway 83 in Peñitas, leaving three dead and another 14 injured. They were the latest victims of what appears...

They are believed to have smuggled hundreds of illegal immigrants into the United States but now, 41 truck drivers, guides, brokers, recruiters and smuggling leaders are facing criminal charges. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents started the investigation in Laredo but made the arrests across several American cities over the last seven weeks. Investigators said the group used truck drivers to smuggle at least 376 illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras into the United States. Most of the immigrants were discovered tractor trailers and attempting to pass through different checkpoints in and around Laredo. Most...

Tens of thousands of people - most of them women and girls from Thailand and Mexico, according to federal officials - are illegally trafficked each year into the United States, where they are forced to work as prostitutes, servants in private homes and laborers in sweatshops. In the past decade, the issue has aroused passions among activists as well as authorities who have poured money and manpower into fighting a war against human trafficking that surprisingly is as murky and convoluted as the battles against drugs and arms-smuggling. According to the California report issued in December - and Los Angeles'...

A man who already has been caught and deported 14 times has been picked up in Colorado again on charges of human smuggling. Eagle County authorities arrested Israel Robles-Gaytan during a traffic stop on Interstate 70 in Eagle County Monday morning. with 13 people who didn't have proper immigration papers. The driver planned on delivering the twelve adult males to various locations that included Denver, Iowa, and Georgia...

Two men who had been deported a total of nine times from the United States were jailed after sheriff’s deputies pulled over their mini van... Salvador Rodriguez-Rojas, 23, of Mexico, said the eight people in the van were family members and... Two more people were later found behind the back seat of the van... The men, who also gave sheriff’s deputies fake identification, were arrested on suspicion of human smuggling, criminal impersonation and possession of a forged instrument, all felonies...

Operators given probation for conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants BROWNSVILLE — Federal officials seized $540,000 from four Harlingen motel owners after they were sentenced to probation for conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants, an official said Friday. Rakeshkumar Bhakta, 40, and wife Alka Bhakta, 35, owners of the Hudson House motel, and Kamleshkumar Bhakta, 32, and wife Falguniben Bhakta, 30, owners of the Country Side Inn motel, forfeited a total of $540,000 in equity from their businesses, said Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Antonio. U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle ordered the owners...

BURLINGTON, Vt.—A human smuggling operation based in Toronto and another in Montreal moved hundreds of immigrants into the U.S., with some paying $10,000 apiece, American prosecutors said Wednesday in announcing indictments against the groups. Most of the illegal border crossings took place on foot in a stretch the U.S. Border Patrol considers a prime area for smuggling because of its proximity to interstate highways that make it easy to move people once they're in the country, said Thomas Anderson, U.S. attorney for Vermont. One of the groups, apparently working with recruiters in South Korea, would meet immigrants at the Toronto...

Authorities in Mexico say they have taken into custody 164 illegal Central American immigrants who were inside a truck that was supposed to be carrying aid to victims of recent flooding in the southern state of Tabasco. The National Migration Institute says 159 Guatemalans and five Hondurans were hiding in the truck when it was stopped for a routine search. The driver was arrested. Many Central American migrants pass through southern Mexico en route to the United States to seek work. Some information for this report was provided by AFP.

Large ring kept up to 120 women in virtual slavery The picture, with its implicit threat, was all it took. It was taken just before Christmas 2004. She had been thinking about running away from the windowless bar on Houston's northwest side, where he kept her and other women, forcing some of them into prostitution while they paid off their "debts." But Maximino "Chimino" Mondragon knew of her plans. Carrying a camera and Christmas presents for the woman's daughter, he had appeared unannounced at her family's home in El Salvador. The woman, who was not identified by authorities, told investigators...

A Mexican couple is facing federal charges in Chattanooga after their vehicle filled with seven Chinese aliens was stopped. Venancio Perez-Martinez and Clara Rodriguez-Anaya were arrested after their red Dodge Durango was stopped on Sept. 20 on northbound I-75 in Bradley County for a traffic violation. Officer Andy Radcliffe said he noticed several passengers in the car who appeared to be of Asian descent. He said Perez-Martinez claimed they were relatives of his wife and they were going to New York to visit other relatives. The officer asked how they could be related "being the subjects are Asian and they...