Human Smuggling Rings Busted

(El Paso, Texas) Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents busted the two largest human smuggling rings on the border, concluding a two-year investigation.

From Borderlandnews.com:

The rings, one led by Michael Lynn Price, 53, and his wife, Fabiola del Carmen Moguel de Price, 39, and the other led by Sam Jarvis, 52, all of Socorro, Texas, were responsible for moving about 200 undocumented immigrants each month from El Paso to Dallas in the back of tractor-trailers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

"They were not smuggling two or three people at a time. They were smuggling 79 people in one instance. They were into making a lot of money," Daniel Page, acting assistant special agent in charge, said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the organizations generated more than $1.6 million between March 2003 and October 2005. On Monday, 13 people, including the alleged ring leaders, were behind bars and three were being sought by officials.

Indictments for conspiracy to smuggle aliens may each result in a 20-year sentence and $250,000 fine. Several people were indicted on multiple counts, allegedly smuggling people from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Ecuador.

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