Posted on 10/16/2003 9:45:38 PM PDT by lewislynn
Officials: Smuggling ring broken
6 charged with holding illegal immigrants for ransom in Corsicana
08:27 PM CDT on Thursday, October 16, 2003
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
Federal officials said Thursday they have broken up a Corsicana human smuggling ring, alleging the members held four illegal immigrants hostage while threatening to kill them unless relatives paid a ransom.
Damacio Andrade-Castaneda and Summer Nichols, both of Corsicana, will make an appearance Friday in Dallas before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez. Federal charges include conspiracy to commit hostage taking and harboring illegal immigrants.
"They are reputed in the Corsicana community to be an alien smuggling operation," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tammy Reno, who is prosecuting the case. "Alien smuggling has become increasingly dangerous and violent. And there are definitely more people involved in this ring."
Mr. Andrade-Castaneda, 43, and Ms. Nichols, 23, as well as three other men charged with aiding them, had appeared Thursday before Judge Ramirez. They were arrested by Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after a months-long investigation. Another man indicted by a federal grand jury, Juan Rene Zarraga-Rodriguez, 24, is believed to be at large in Mexico, Ms. Reno said.
The U.S. attorney's office accuses them of harboring Julio Canizales-Fuentes, Gilmer Rizo-Duarte, Jose Nieto-Garcia and Jesus Acevedo-Figueroa during March and April in a rented Corsicana house.
The illegal immigrants originally agreed to pay between $1,200 and $1,300 per person for transport from Guatemala and Honduras to the United States, Ms. Reno said.
When the alleged smugglers demanded that the men pay them $400 more each and they could not, Mr. Andrade-Castaneda held them in a small room with an armed guard outside the door, Ms. Reno said. When the guard briefly left, they escaped, running down a street without shoes and asking a local woman to call police.
On Thursday, the U.S. attorney's office unsealed the grand jury indictment of Mr. Andrade-Castaneda, Mr. Zarraga-Rodriguez and Ms. Nichols, dated Aug. 20.
Jose Angel Aldaña-Torres, Jose Angel Aldaña and Francisco J. Medina, all of Corsicana, are charged with conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants.
Immigration officials provided three of the four illegal immigrants with work papers, allowing them to remain in the United States. Federal authorities have the fourth man in custody because of previous felonies, Ms. Reno said.
E-mail dlevinthal@dallasnews.com
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