(The Center Square) – Another Guatemalan human smuggling ring has been busted, this one with major operations in Arizona, California and New Mexico.
Nine of 10 members of a Guatemalan Lopez Crime Family human smuggling operation who were indicted in June 2023 have now pleaded guilty to their roles in an extensive “alien smuggling” conspiracy. All nine admitted to conspiring to bring, harbor and transport groups of illegal foreign nationals into and throughout the U.S. for financial gain, according to court documents.
Lopez-Escobar, 47, of Guatemala City, the alleged leader of the Lopez Crime Family, remains a fugitive.
Guatemalan nationals illegally residing in Phoenix involved in the scheme who pleaded guilty include Rosa Adriana Lopez-Escobar, 43; Franklin Leonardo Chilel-Ramirez, 39; Junior Vanegas Portillo and Jose Denilson Lopez Chilel, 26.
Guatemalans illegally living in Long Beach, Calif., who pleaded guilty include Deysi Marisela Lopez-Ambrosio, 27, and Mildred Yanira Lopez-Ambrosio, 23.
Arizona residents who pleaded guilty include Jose Gianluca Lopez-Perez, 21, (Phoenix); Sebastian Rolando Cortez, 22, (Tempe); and Carlos Chavez-Hernandez, 22, (Avondale), according to the charges.
Between October 2021 and April 2023, members of the Lopez human smuggling organization maintained a base of operations out of Luna County, New Mexico, using “peer-to-peer money transfer apps to facilitate payments among co-conspirators and instructed others to pick up and move groups of undocumented individuals in exchange for money.”
It involved smuggling Guatemalan nationals north through Mexico into the U.S., arranging for pick-ups in Animas, New Mexico, near the U.S.-Mexico border, and then transporting them to Phoenix and then elsewhere.
Of the nine who pleaded guilty, four have already received sentences. Vanegas Portillo was sentenced to 37 months in prison; Rolando Cortez was sentenced to one year probation; Chavez-Hernandez was sentenced to time served and two years of supervised release; Denilson Lopez Chilel was sentenced to 45 months. The other defendants have yet to be sentenced.
Denilson Lopez Chilel entered a plea deal agreeing “to forfeit several items used in furtherance of the conspiracy,” including firearms, ammunition, “a 2017 Chevrolet Camaro, a 2017 Ford Mustang, a 2021 Chevrolet Silverado and a 2020 Polaris Can-Am Side by Side UTV,” according to the charges.
Homeland Security Investigations New Mexico led the investigation supported by HSI-Arizona; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California; Border Patrol agents in New Mexico, California and Arizona; U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center/Operation Sentinel; Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office; and the Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section.
The announcement comes one month after one of the largest Guatemalan human smuggling operations in U.S. history was dismantled by federal and local law enforcement officers. In this case, leaders of a smuggling group were indicted on charges of smuggling roughly 20,000 Guatemalans into the U.S. over a period of five years, transporting them from Phoenix to Los Angeles and elsewhere, The Center Square reported.
One of the leaders is currently incarcerated in Oklahoma for causing a November 2023 car accident that killed seven, authorities said, including three minors in Elk City, Oklahoma. The accident occurred during a smuggling operation when he was transporting illegal foreign nationals from New York to Los Angeles, authorities said. He was arrested and charged in the Western District of Oklahoma.
Four Guatemalan ringleaders were charged with “conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States, transporting aliens in the United States, and harboring aliens in the United States for private financial gain and resulting in death,” according to the indictment.
Two were also charged with two counts of hostage-taking.
Another was charged with threatening to cut off the heads of an ICE task force officer and his family members.
The smuggling busts were made after a record nearly one million Guatemalans illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.
