Four men are facing federal charges for their roles in one of the largest human smuggling rings in the United States, accused of smuggling approximately 20,000 people from Guatemala into the country between 2019 and 2024. The U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Joseph T. McNally, revealed the details during a news conference on Monday.
The men face serious charges, including conspiracy to transport aliens, harboring aliens for financial gain, hostage-taking, and causing death in the process. The ringleaders of this operation, Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul and Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, were arrested and pleaded not guilty on Friday. A third defendant, Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, remains a fugitive after allegedly threatening to kill a Homeland Security officer and his family following a search warrant at his home. Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj, the fourth defendant, is in custody in Oklahoma in connection to a deadly car crash in 2023, in which seven people, including a 4-year-old child, died while being transported by the group.
The smuggling operation involved charging between $15,000 and $18,000 per person to bring undocumented immigrants into the U.S. from Guatemala. After being smuggled into the country, immigrants were taken to stash houses across the U.S., including Los Angeles. If they failed to pay, they were held hostage.
McNally expressed the severity of these actions, calling the crimes a “callous disregard” for U.S. immigration laws and for the lives of the immigrants themselves. Dwayne Angebrandt, acting deputy special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles, emphasized the grave risks involved in human smuggling, endangering the lives of desperate individuals seeking a better life, as well as posing a national security threat.
The case highlights the ongoing struggle to combat human smuggling operations amid rising immigration challenges at the U.S.-Mexico border. Federal authorities have made it clear that these criminal activities will not go unpunished.
