L.A. Bus Firm Investigated in Immigrant Smuggling Scheme

Federal authorities said Monday they have smashed a human-smuggling operation in which a Los Angeles-based bus company transported tens of thousands of unlawful immigrants from the U.S.-Mexican border to Southern California and other parts of the country.

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said 32 people were indicted for their alleged roles in the complex scheme that involved smugglers, bus terminal workers and top officials of the Golden State Transportation Co. in Los Angeles.

According to the indictment, conspirators would purchase large blocs of tickets for unlawful immigrants who had already crossed the border and were hidden in houses and motels. The immigrants would be loaded on to buses, often after midnight, traveling routes selected to evade known checkpoints of the Border Patrol. The scheme may have lasted for as long as five years, transporting from 50 to 300 immigrants a day, seven days a week, officials said.

“I have seen firsthand the life-threatening and oppressive conditions that confront people trying to cross the border illegally,” said Ashcroft, who appeared at a news conference with James Ziglar, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. “Today’s indictment underscores our commitment to prosecute migrant smugglers, seek forfeiture of their illegal profits and put them out of business.”

U.S. officials described the immigrant-smuggling case as the largest of its kind against a transportation firm.

Most of those indicted were arrested Sunday and Monday in a series of raids in Los Angeles, Fresno, Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, Albuquerque, Las Vegas and Denver, authorities said. Among those arrested was Francisco Gonzalez, the founder and vice president of Golden State Transportation, and other corporate officers of the firm. Lower-level employees of Golden State and smugglers associated with the Pineda and Castillo organizations also were named in the 39-count indictment. Of the 32 people indicted, 26 were in custody late Monday, officials said.

Golden State Transportation’s majority owner, Sistema Internacional de Transporte de Autobuses, is a “wholly owned subsidiary” of Greyhound Lines Inc., according to the indictment. Justice Department officials said Monday they had no information to indicate that any Greyhound officials knew of the scheme.

Miles L. Kavaller, an attorney for the company’s founder, denied the allegations and called the firm, founded by Gonzalez in the early 1970s, a rags-to-riches immigrant enterprise. The company does not knowingly transport illegal immigrants, Kavaller said, adding that the carrier “is not an agent of the INS.”

Late Monday, a federal magistrate in Los Angeles ordered Gonzalez released on bond, along with his son Antonio, one of several sons involved in the business.

Lynn Brown, a Greyhound spokeswoman, described Greyhound’s connection to Golden State as that of an “investor” with no day-to-day operating involvement. She called the allegations a “surprise” and said Greyhound would cooperate fully with the investigation.

Federal authorities used undercover agents and surveillance to build their case against Golden State Transportation, Ashcroft said, focusing particularly on Golden State Transportation’s operations in California, Arizona and Colorado.

The indictment, handed down in U.S. District Court in Tucson, alleged that Golden State Transportation generated a substantial amount of its annual revenue by transporting illegal migrants. Government officials Monday were moving to freeze Golden State’s assets, which include 160 buses, corporate bank accounts, and terminals in Los Angeles, El Paso, Tucson and property in Las Vegas.

The indictments and arrests culminated a two-year investigation, dubbed Operation Great Basin, which involved 300 law enforcement personnel from various state and federal agencies in seven states.

The 35-page indictment laid out a calculated scheme, in which the smugglers allegedly exploited weak points in the nation’s border security to transport illegal immigrants over a period of years.

Smugglers would often pick up the unlawful passengers in El Paso or Tucson, then transport them to Los Angeles or Denver, officials said. The smugglers would put phony names--or none at all--on the passenger manifest, conceal the immigrants in shadowy areas of the bus terminal and herd them aboard “just before departure,” the indictment alleged. In addition, the accused conspirators employed undocumented immigrants to participate in the scheme, believing that such individuals were unlikely to inform police.

Federal law does not require transportation carriers to verify passengers’ immigration status, which makes such investigations difficult, officials said.

While federal authorities alleged that the buses used extensive night travel and other means to avoid detection, it remained unclear how the alleged smugglers could have moved so many illegal immigrants without drawing law enforcement attention.

Many of Golden State’s routes--such as the Tijuana-Los Angeles service, traversing one of the world’s most active people-smuggling corridors--used major freeways with active Border Patrol checkpoints, such as the huge checkpoint on northbound Interstate 5 near San Clemente. Border Patrol agents regularly examined the papers of Golden State clients, both at terminals and checkpoints, said passengers interviewed Monday.

As for the company’s use of night travel--long a hallmark of long-distance bus service--Border Patrol agents are on duty 24 hours a day and may stop suspected smuggling vehicles at any hour.

On Monday, federal agents in blue blazers stood guard inside the tattered storefront depot of Transportes Golden State just off the gritty corner of 6th and Maple streets in downtown Los Angeles, near skid row and the toy manufacturing district. Several similar lines catering to an immigrant clientele also have offices nearby.

The transporter’s windows carried cheerful Christmas greetings and the departure times of more than a dozen buses leaving daily for Tijuana. Signs indicated service to immigrant-heavy towns in the San Joaquin Valley, and service to as far away as Yakima, Wash., another outpost in the migrant trail.

Outside, stranded passengers with suitcases wondered about canceled trips, possible refunds and alternate travel. Many expressed skepticism that the company could be smuggling people, noting that federal agents regularly entered the buses leaving border areas and examined people’s identification.

“They always check,” said Teresa Gomez Ramos, a grandmother from Los Angeles who was heading to the San Diego border neighborhood of San Ysidro to visit her son. “I don’t see how they could have been polleros,” she added, using a word that is common border slang for smugglers, after the Spanish word pollo, or chicken--as the legions of border-jumpers are known.

Heidi Gomez of Los Angeles also noted the frequent Border Patrol checks. When she arrived this morning after an all-night ride from El Paso, she said, she was surprised to see immigration officers searching all the men leaving the bus.

“I thought it was a terrorism thing,” she said. “They were only checking the men.”

After some interruption, Golden State’s service resumed Monday afternoon, a company official said. The line has up to 80 departures daily from Los Angeles, each carrying as many as 59 passengers.

While top U.S. authorities touted the case as a victory against illegal immigration, experts say smugglers can always find alternate routes, especially with illegal immigrants willing to pay $1,500 or more per head for transport from the heavily policed U.S.-Mexico border to Los Angeles or elsewhere.

The INS, which has long devoted much of its resources to border enforcement, sought to highlight Monday’s indictment as a sign that it was continuing to go after smuggling rings, even as enforcement demands have increased since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“The INS is determined to carry out its mandate on interior enforcement while also being a leading agency in the terrorist investigation,” Ziglar said. “Human smuggling is a dangerous business, and it represents a multibillion-dollar global, permanent problem.” He added that the case “affirms our commitment at the INS to disrupt immigrant smuggling on all fronts--from the border to the boardroom.”

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Meyer and Peterson reported from Washington and McDonnell from Los Angeles. Times staff writer David Rosenzweig in Los Angeles contributed to this report.