Gang Linked to Trafficking in Humans

Police and immigration officials said Wednesday that they had uncovered a human smuggling and hijacking operation involving a local street gang.

A member of the 18th Street gang was allegedly part of a ring that stole a group of illegal immigrants from organizations involved in the smuggling of people, immigration investigators said. The hijackers then allegedly held the snatched migrants for ransom until relatives in the U.S. paid for their release.

Immigration officials said the capture of the hijackers was significant because of the potential competition between gangs and smugglers, which could raise the level of violence in the trafficking of human beings.

“Smuggling people is inherently dangerous,” said Daren Dowell, an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations team. “This is going to increase the risk of violence and danger to people being transported as human cargo.”

Members of the hijacking ring, which authorities believe had been operating intermittently for more than a year, were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on charges of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and of transporting and harboring illegal immigrants, Dowell said. Criminal indictment will follow, officials said.

The defendants include Jose Penado-Villeda, 24, a citizen of El Salvador and a known 18th Street gang member; Sergio Aguilar-Ramirez, 24; Felipe Mendoza-Grenades, 30; Luis Aguilar-Ramirez, 29; Gilberto Becerra-Perez, 18; Juan Becerra-Perez, 21; and Daniel Montano-Perez, 29. All but Penado-Villeda are illegal immigrants from Mexico, immigration officials said.

Officials said they were still not sure exactly what role the gang played in planning or carrying out the alleged operation. Authorities are continuing to investigate whether the gang was tied to other kidnappings over the last year.

The Los Angeles smuggling operation was uncovered Friday when California Highway Patrol officers made a routine traffic stop of a van, law enforcement officials said. The driver and a passenger fled the vehicle, abandoning their cargo of 15 to 20 men, all from Mexico.

Further investigation led police and immigration officials to an apartment on Alexandria Avenue in the Rampart area of Los Angeles. Seven men were subsequently taken into custody.

Dowell said the hijacking ring operated by planting one of its members in a group of immigrants waiting to be smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.

The gang would then arrange to “buy out” the planted smuggling victim, but would instead hijack the entire load of illegal immigrants and keep them in a “drop house” until their relatives paid for their release.

The current rate for someone from Mexico is $1,200 to $1,700 each, Dowell said. It is unclear how many such operations have been successfully executed in the Los Angeles area in the last year, but officials acknowledged that the scheme was primarily a money-making venture.

Law enforcement officials reported that on the night before their arrest, the alleged hijackers met with a smuggler in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant, where they snatched his human cargo and then forced him to lead them to a drop house, where they used guns to take several more illegal immigrants hostage.

One of the smuggled people later told police that the next day two alleged hijackers unsuccessfully tried to “sell” him and had threatened to kill him if they did not receive the money by noon that day.

In November, federal, state and local law enforcement officials launched a joint offensive against immigrant trafficking in states such as Arizona, and against the violence it has spawned.

Led by the immigration agency, the task force is particularly concerned with curtailing the increasing use of assault weapons by smugglers and with crippling the financial infrastructure of organizations involved in smuggling.