3 Charged in Alleged Smuggling Case in Which 8 Immigrants Died in Snow

Three Mexican nationals were charged Monday in connection with their role in leading a group of illegal immigrants on a deadly trek through a snowstorm in the mountains of eastern San Diego County.

Jesus Rodriguez Cruz, Carlos Javier Gutierrez Sanchez and Luis Alberto Meza Rosario were charged in federal court with one count each of felony immigrant smuggling.

Federal authorities say the three were among the paid guides who took groups of illegal immigrants across the border from Tecate, Mexico, into the remote mountains of the Cleveland National Forest, about 40 miles east of San Diego.

Eight people died and more than 50 were rescued after they were caught in a surprise snowstorm Thursday night and early Friday.

The three men were each being held on $30,000 bond and will enter pleas at a hearing later this month, federal authorities said.

Four of the surviving migrants were being held voluntarily as witnesses.

When the bodies were discovered last week, Mexican authorities conducted their own search for migrants waiting to cross at Tecate and found two additional bodies and more than 80 people stranded in the cold.