One Shot Dead in Suspected Smuggler Feud

A 31-year-old man was killed and another man critically wounded in a Santa Ana shooting Thursday night. Police say the incident may have been a feud between smugglers and illegal immigrants they had brought into the country.

Police said the dead man, Victor Camacho, and the other, unidentified victim had apparently smuggled five men into the country before the attack.

Investigators said the shooting began shortly before midnight in a Burger King parking lot at 17th and Bristol streets when the two men and five passengers in a Chevrolet Suburban were confronted by at least one other man from a second car and a fight broke out.

The two men apparently “were waiting for someone . . . to meet them to exchange money for the smuggling,” Santa Ana Police Sgt. Raul Luna said. “One of the guys from the back of the Suburban gets out to meet them.”

A fight ensued, and someone shot the driver and the front-seat passenger, Luna said, adding that it was still unclear whether it was a passenger in the Suburban who shot the two men.

The Suburban did not have license plates, and the state did not have any records on the other car, Luna said.

“Usually you will find that people in this business will have a ‘safe house’ where they keep the people they have transported across the border until they get the money,” Luna said. Border Patrol spokesman Roy Villarreal also said the incident was unusual because typically it is the smugglers who use violence against the immigrants they are paid to bring to the United States.

“This is very much an anomaly. Usually the smuggler preys on the family, sometimes forcing them to pay more to free their loved ones,” Villarreal said. “This is the only case in my recollection where a family outwitted the smuggler.”