LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Western Law Enforcement has released charges against four suspected of smuggling around 20,000 illegal immigrants from Guatemala to the United States, including seven people who died in a 2023 car accident.
Officials said the operators of so-called Turkish organisations, Eduardo Domingo “Turco” Lunozi Matur, Cristobal Mezia Charge, Hermer Obispo Hernandez and Jose Pakstor Oxraj, were charged in federal court last week.
Renoj-Matul, 51, and Mejia-Chaj, 49, were arrested on Friday, each appearing in court where they were ordered not to be detained. If convicted, they could each face the death penalty, officials said.
Paxtor-Oxlaj, 44, is behind a bar in Oklahoma for his role in a 2023 car accident that killed seven immigrants, including three children, a court paper shows.
All defendants are Guatemalan citizens who lived in the United States illegally or illegally on suspicion of a crime, federal authorities said.
Attorney Joseph T. McNally called the ring “one of the nation’s largest human smuggling operations.”
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McNally said that 41-year-old Obispo Hernandez called investigators on the incident and threatened to kill him and behead members of the agent’s family as a search warrant took place near downtown Los Angeles on Friday. The defendant was arrested and fled, McNally said.
When illegal immigrants were smuggled into the United States, some were detained in “hidden places” in the Westlake area and elsewhere until fees were paid to smugglers, authorities said.
Ring’s actions “indicating a complete disregard for the country’s immigration laws,” McNally said at a Monday news conference in downtown Los Angeles.
He added that the sweep showed new efforts to “encourage immigration laws where dozens of complaints have been filed against illegals with criminal records.”
Homeland Security Investigation’s Dwayne Angentle is a special agent for the deputy deputy for Los Angeles, who said the organization has transported around 20,000 illegal immigrants to Los Angeles and Phoenix, Arizona since 2019.
“Illegal conduct puts national security at risk,” he told reporters, calling for public assistance in reporting information about smuggling organisations.
Gregory K. Bovino, chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol El Centro Sector, said the Turkish operation was a complex coast-to-coast organization “was destroyed on Friday and dismantled from top to bottom.”
He continued, “Border security was created, but it doesn’t just happen.”
All four defendants are charged with one conspiracy of bringing aliens to the US, transporting US aliens, embracing them to the US for civilian economic benefits, resulting in death.
Additionally, Renoj-Matul and Mejia-Chaj are charged with two counts of hostage. Obispo-Hernandez and Paxtor-oxlaj are being charged with one count for private financial benefits and consequently transporting aliens in the US and causing death, court documents show.
Another federal criminal charge filed March 2 in Los Angeles on March 2 indicted Obispo Hernandez of threatening to kill an HSI task force officer and a member of his family.
If convicted of all charges, the defendant could face death or life sentence, authorities said.
The U.S. Lawyer’s Office claims that Renoju Matual was supported by fellow Guatemalans to recruit illegal immigrants to come to the United States, accepting payments of between $15,000 and $18,000 for each illegal immigrant smuggled into the United States, and coordinated the illegal immigration journey from Guatemala to the United States.
In November 2023, Paxtor-Oxlaj had a car accident in Elk, Oklahoma, smuggling illegal immigrants from New York to Los Angeles. The car accident caused the deaths of seven passengers in the vehicle he drove. Of the seven killed, three are minors, including a four-year-old child, court documents show.
“We must actively enforce immigration laws so that these organizations cannot operate,” McNally said. “The indictment and arrests here have dismantled one of the nation’s largest and most dangerous smuggling organizations. The job saved lives and members of the organization will now face serious consequences.”
