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Ranchers and cops in rural Brooks County, Texas, say illegal immigration is worse than it’s ever been, with deadly consequences for migrants who get lost.FALFURRIAS, Texas — The last time Deputy Don White recovered a corpse, in early May, it had been ripped apart by feral hogs. He found human body parts and clothing scattered over about a 100-foot area on a cattle ranch in Brooks County, Texas, about 70 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. The man had been dead for about three weeks. The hogs, says White, “took the arms — the scapula will oftentimes come loose, and so...

Facebook appears to allow human smugglers to advertise their services with false promises of “100 percent safety” and easy travel. NBC News reported multiple Facebook posts reportedly found on the social media platform offering “Travel to Mexico to the United States. Costs $8,000. 100 percent safe.” The article states human smugglers are openly advertising their services and are making false claims about the journey.

Mexican drug cartels and human smugglers TAG 'asylum-seeking' migrants to the US with $500 colored wristbands that look like hospital bracelets to keep track of their movements U.S. Customs and Border Protection has learned that migrants illegally crossing the border have been using a system of colored wristbands The plastic wristbands were placed on the individuals by the drug cartels and human traffickers who ferried them over the Mexico-United States border The bracelets were marked 'arrivals' or 'entries' in Spanish and were spotted lying along the Rio Grande shore near the Texas border town of Penitas A Honduran migrant told...

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, October 31, 2019 Human Smuggler Indicted On U.S. Charges and Arrested as Part of Brazilian Takedown of Significant Alien Smugglers Earlier today, extensive coordination and cooperation efforts between United States and Brazilian law enforcement authorities culminated in the Brazil Federal Police (DPF) conducting a significant enforcement operation to disrupt and dismantle a transnational alien smuggling organization, including the arrest on Brazilian charges of an alleged alien smuggler who has also been indicted in the United States.  The alien smugglers targeted in this operation are alleged to be responsible...

In a misguided attempt to find an edgy new angle on the border crisis, CBS aired a documentary segment Sunday that casts a sympathetic light on a pair of coyotes, or human smugglers, in Panama. Under the headline, “The human coyotes helping migrants survive Central America’s grueling Darien Gap jungle,” CBS portrays two men, Gonzalez Jimenez and his smuggling partner Augustin, as humanitarians just trying to help get migrants safely through a dangerous stretch of jungle: Emerson Gonzalez Jimenez said he typically charges $700 to get people safely from Capurgana, Colombia, to Bajo Chiquito, Panama. He said he sometimes makes...

More than half a million illegal immigrants of several dozen nationalities have been apprehended on John Ladd’s sprawling cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona. Ladd has also found 14 dead bodies on his 16,500-acre farm, which has been in his family for well over a century and sits between the Mexican border and historic State Route 92. The property shares a 10 ½-mile border with Mexico, making it a popular route for human and drug smugglers evading a meager force of Border Patrol agents in the mountainous region. “As big as that number sounds, many more got away,” said National Border...

ZAPATA - Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, Jr. tells CHANNEL 5 NEWS armed pirates shot at a McAllen couple on Falcon Lake this afternoon. The husband and wife were jetskiing near Old Guerrero. One their way back to shore, pirates in a boat pulled up next to them and started shooting at them. The husband was hit, possibly in the head. The woman tried to save him and ended up being at shot as well. She had to turn around and leave her husband in the water. She fears he's dead.

Note: The following text is a quote: Somalian Charged with Making False Statements on Application for Asylum Defendant is Accused of Making False Statements Concerning Participation in Terrorist Organizations United States Attorney John E. Murphy announced that in San Antonio, a federal grand jury has indicted 24-year-old Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane, a citizen of Somalia, on two counts of making false statements under penalty of perjury to federal authorities concerning his association with global terrorist organizations. The indictment, returned yesterday and unsealed this afternoon, alleges that on October 28, 2008, the defendant falsely omitted on an application for asylum that from...

NATIONAL GANG THREAT SUMMARY Gangs pose a serious threat to public safety in many communities throughout the United States. Gang members are increasingly migrating from urban to suburban areas and are responsible for a growing per- centage of crime and violence in many communities. Much gang-related criminal activity involves drug trafficking; however, gang members are increasingly engaging in alien and weapons trafficking. Additionally, a rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships with U.S.- and foreign-based drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and other criminal organizations to gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs.

PHOENIX - People who hire "coyotes" to get them into this country can be prosecuted under a state law aimed at the smugglers, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. In the first decision of its kind in the state, the judges rebuffed even the comments of Rep. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, one of the architects of the 2005 legislation, that it was never designed to go after the immigrants themselves. Judge Lawrence Winthrop, writing for the court, said it is possible that Paton may have intended that the migrants be considered the victims of the crime of human smuggling. "This...

Monday, 31 March 2008 ICE-led probe results in criminal and civil forfeitures of more than $1 million PHOENIX - A federal judge has sentenced the last of the 13 owners and former owners of six motels in Mesa, Ariz., who were indicted after a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed they were using their businesses to harbor illegal aliens in support of organized human smuggling. U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Martone imposed sentences of probation, fines and forfeiture on the final two defendants in the case March 26. The owners of the motels on Mesa's Main Street...

McALLEN — A couple was sentenced Friday to about five years in prison each for running a large-scale human smuggling operation. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa sentenced Hortensia Sanchez-Rodriguez and Emilio Anguiano-Santoyo to 60 and 63 months, respectively, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Houston. The statement goes on to say that the couple was responsible for smuggling about 250 illegal immigrants from Miguel Alemán to Roma and arranging their transport to Houston during a period from March 2004 to September 2005. The court docket reads that there was evidence through recorded telephone conversations that the...

LUBBOCK, Texas- Three men caught transporting illegal immigrants after one of their vehicles crashed, killing a Mexican national, have pleaded guilty to federal smuggling charges. The men, each from Cleburne, entered their pleas Thursday and face up to 10 years in prison after trying to smuggle as many as 13 immigrants before one of their cars rolled near El Dorado after blowing a tire. Prosecutors say Jorge Luis Castro-Garcia, Jesse Cano and Agustin Anorga organized a smuggling ring that included each immigrant paying Castro-Garcia $1,500 to be transported from Mexico to Cleburne. Each drove separate vehicles but Anorga crashed his...

Nine of 48 illegal immigrants charged with conspiracy to smuggle humans — themselves — pleaded guilty to lesser charges Tuesday and will be deported under an agreement with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. They join four other immigrants who recently agreed to the deal, pleading guilty to solicitation to smuggle. In addition to deportation, the border crossers were placed on two years of probation. The 48 immigrants were the first in the county to be charged with conspiracy to smuggle humans — a unique interpretation of a state law aimed at cracking down on coyotes, who are paid by immigrants...

A fourth, but perhaps not last, suspect was arrested in a Port Isabel human smuggling ring that used luxury boats to bypass border patrol checkpoints, federal authorities said. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement agents arrested Breakaway Cruises Manager Robert M. Moore on a felony human smuggling charge Wednesday. Moore was arrested wearing a Breakaway Cruises T-shirt and held at the Brownsville City Jail before appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge John William Black Thursday morning, according to jail records. A criminal complaint shows Moore is accused of accepting $9,000 from alleged human smuggling “middleman” Luis Alberto Gutierrez-Zapien to take six immigrants...

LA GLORIA — Authorities are trying to determine the nationality of six people, five men and one woman, who died in a two-vehicle collision at about 6 a.m. today just south of La Gloria on U.S. 281. Officials are trying to recreate the incident, but it appears the collision took place as a Ford pickup going east on Country Road 405 turned onto 281 and was struck by an 18-wheeler carrying automobiles and going southbound on 281 toward Falfurrias, according to Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Ryan Rippee. The 2005 Ford F-150 pickup flipped on its side and landed...

ABC13 Eyewitness News (6/01/05 - WEST UNIVERSITY, TX) — Residents in West University witnessed a chaotic and unsettling scene as close to 100 undocumented immigrants were released in their neighborhood. It happened just after 4:30pm Tuesday. Police say a U-Haul truck pulled up to the intersection of Cason and Wakeforest and unloaded the undocumented immigrants. They also say the human smugglers pulled over after the immigrants locked in the back of the truck rocked it back and forth to get their attention. "They said they'd been in the Houston area for about 24 hours, but they were in the U-Haul...

Federal and state authorities are investigating a nuclear terrorist threat against Boston after a man calling from Mexico told California police that he smuggled two Iraqis and four Chinese over the border, the Boston Herald has learned. ``They got a call from across the border in Mexico to the California Highway Patrol and he said he brought two Iraqis and four Chinese (individuals) across the border and according to him, they stated soon to follow behind them would be some sort of material,'' said a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation. ``He refers to some sort of nuclear material...

OCTOBER 9, 2004 - A smuggling ring involving children backfires. Sources tell Action 4 News questions are being raised on what role if any a CNN news crew played in the illegal operation. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tells Action 4 News two women were arrested Thursday night at the Veterans International Bridge in Brownsville while trying to cross five Mexican children into the United States illegally. U.S. Customs says everyone in the car was detained and adds CNN reporters were not authorized to be at the bridge and were asked to leave. The two unidentified women reportedly said they...

Anderson Examines Devastating Impact of Invasion, Life on the Border By Dennis Durband, Editor In the interior of Mexico, there is a labor shortage. There are no Americans available to do the jobs that Mexicans won't do. However, the travel industry is thriving. And these are great days for “coyotes” – human smugglers – and those in drug trafficking. Travelers from South and Central America, Mexico and other nations are traveling in great numbers up through Hermosillo, Mexico and to northern staging locations near the U.S. border. These people can go to a Catholic church in one of the Mexican...