Los Angeles federal authorities have arrested and accused two alleged leaders of a criminal organization who would have illegally introduced just over 20,000 undocumented immigrants from Guatemala in the United States for five years – including seven people who died in a car accident in 2023.
Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, alias “El Jefe” and “Turko”, and Cristobal Mejia-Chaj were arrested last week and pleaded not guilty to a multitude of accusations linked to the smuggling of migrants across the American border. A federal judge illegally ordered men, who are in the country, imprisoned without surety.
Men face life prison and the possibility of the death penalty, acting. Joseph T. McNally said at a press conference on Monday announcing the charges.
The lawyers of Renoj-Matul and Mejia-Chaj did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
“The offenses alleged in the indictment show a criminal group which acted with an insensitive contempt for the immigration laws of our country and no respect for the immigrants they have undertaken,” said McNally.
The case of human smuggling, said McNally, was part of a series of one -week events “focused on the revitalization of existing activities of the application of immigration”. The American lawyer’s office in Los Angeles also announced on Monday that in recent weeks, accusations have been deposited against 126 people accused of illegally reinstating the country after being withdrawn.
According to federal authorities, many of the people charged had been sentenced to crime before their withdrawal from the United States, offenses which include guilty man and crimes against children. The accusations are involved in the deluge of President Trump’s political orders and political changes to harden immigration laws and facilitate deportations.
Us Border Patrol provided approximately 50 agents for operations Friday linked to human contraband.
The arrests on Friday aroused fears of an “raid” of immigration and customs in Los Angeles. Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesperson for the ice, previously said that there was an “undergoing investigation into human smuggling”.
According to an indictment made last week, the “transnational organizal transnational renoj-matul” worked for at least a dozen years and specializes in the transport of migrants from Guatemala. Federal authorities called it one of the country’s largest human smuggling organizations.
Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, who is said to be in Guatemala, is responsible for a large ring of human smuggling accused of transporting undocumented migrants in Guatemala in the United States
(American lawyer’s office)
Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, suspected of being a lieutenant of the organization and supervisor of a team of drivers, and Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj, suspected of being a driver, were also charged, according to the indictment.
While searching mandates were carried out on Friday, Obispo-Hernandez would have called an agent responsible for the law enforcement and threatened to kill this agent and his family members “by cutting his head,” said McNally. Obispo-Hernandez, who remains a fugitive, was also accused of having threatened an agent of the federal working group.
“These actions demonstrate how violent this organization is,” said McNally.
Obispo-Hernandez is said to be in Guatemala, the federal authorities said. Paxtor-Oxlaj has been in detention in Oklahoma since November 21, 2023, when he was suspected of participating in a car accident which killed seven people he was carrying in Los Angeles, including three minors, according to the indictment. According to McNally, one of those killed was a 4 -year -old child.
The organization came on the radar in 2021, when agents of the border patrol of the Indio station traveling on Interstate 10 noticed that the non-watersaltel immigrants were transported towards the west of points of the New Mexico and the Arizona, said that Gregory K. Bovino, chief agent
“One of the most complex and large -scale smuggling organizations is now safe from business,” said Bovino. “Borders safety is created. This does not happen.
Renoj-Matul worked with Guatemala associates who have requested immigrants to come to the United States, invoicing between $ 15,000 and $ 18,000 for each, according to the indictment. According to the indictment, the lieutenants of the Renoj-Matul organization led smuggling cells with teams of drivers and hiding house operators.
Mejia-Chaj, described as “the right hand man” of Renoj-Matul, would have exploited a hiding house on Boulevard de James M. Wood in the Westlake region, where people had been smuggled by the organization were brought and held. After payment of smuggling costs, migrants were transported elsewhere in the country, according to the indictment. If the costs had not been paid, they would be held against their will, according to the indictment.
Even after the deadly collision of cars in Elk City in 2023, which Paxtor-Oxlaj is accused of having provoked, smuggling continued, according to the indictment. In a case in 2024, an undocumented immigrant, mentioned only by his initials MMA, would have been held against his will in the reserve for three months when the smuggling fees of $ 15,000 were unpaid.
According to the indictment, after a third party denied the payment of MMA’s smuggling fees, Renoj-Matul and other people in Guatemala called the mother of the woman and threatened to harm the girl, including warning that “would come home in a box” if the fees were not paid.
On August 7, an unleashed co-conspirator called MMA’s mother in Guatemala, blaming her for a search of the law of the house on boulevard Wood the previous month. According to the indictment, in December, three unidentified residents of Guatemala went to the home of MMA’s mother and asked for payment, threatening her with firearms.
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