Countywide

The Border Patrol is still searching for two leaders of a major smuggling ring who are believed responsible for smuggling almost 400 illegal aliens per month into the United States from Mexico.

Ending a six-month investigation, Border Patrol agents have arrested eight men and women from Chula Vista, San Diego, Oceanside and Santa Ana. On June 21 the suspects, including five San Diego County residents, were indicted on one count each of conspiring to harbor and transport illegal aliens. All eight defendants have been released on bonds ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.

But Border Patrol agents have been unable to track down the two brothers, believed to have conducted the smuggling operation from their Chula Vista trucking firm. Rogelio Chavez-Solorio and Manuel Chavez-Solorio allegedly ran a commercial trucking firm that, in addition to transporting imported goods, transported illegal aliens hidden in tractor-trailer trucks behind false walls and in hollow cooling compartments.

The aliens, who paid $300 to $400 for the transfer service, were allegedly picked up in San Diego, transported past immigration checkpoints in San Clemente and Temecula, and eventually dropped off in Santa Ana.

Border Patrol agents say they have no leads in tracking down the Chavez-Solorio brothers, but believe they are still in the San Diego area.

Those indicted in the smuggling operation were Salvador Pena-Salcedo and Jorge Villa-Rios of San Diego, Juan Manuel Chavez-Herrera and Alejandro Montes-Pena of Chula Vista, and German Munoz-Flores, Francisco Torres-Morfin and Maria Torres of Santa Ana. Also named was Eduardo Cazarez of Oceanside.