Car accident leads to arrest for human trafficking

The Daily Planet ^ | October 28, 2011 | Katie Klingsporn

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A one-vehicle accident on rural Highway 141 on Monday triggered a search through the desert for passengers and eventually led to the arrest of one man for suspicion of human smuggling and the pending deportation of four of the passengers.

Juan Denys Hernandez Varenez, a Cuban national, has been charged with four counts of smuggling of humans, a class 3 felony.

The San Miguel Sheriff’s Office suspects that he was smuggling four undocumented foreigners to the Denver area when the sedan he was driving crashed. All of the passengers, including a 20-year-old female from Grand Junction whose involvement is unknown, fled the area by foot and embarked on an arduous cross-country journey, but were discovered the following day by authorities.

On Monday at around 10:20 a.m., calls came in to the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office about a rollover accident near milepost 33 along Highway 141 in the western part of the county.

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SMSO contacted the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to take custody of the illegal aliens and their trafficker. ICE initially refused, according to the sheriff’s office, and advised to simply write the driver a traffic ticket and release everyone. But after multiple phone calls, SMSO reports, ICE responded. ICE officials plan to deport the four illegal foreigners but have declined to prosecute the driver.

A call to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Durango was not returned by press time on Thursday.

The sheriff’s office says ICE’s refusal to prosecute the driver hobbles its effort to prosecute him.

“SMSO will attempt to prosecute the smuggler for violation of Colorado state law, however the witnesses who could testify against him will have been deported, so the success of that prosecution is doubtful,” reads a county release.

You just cannot make this stuff... The smuggler will go free and he will feel incline to make another run, since ice is to busy to deal with human smugglers now.