Thao Nguyen
Four men have been charged with operating a criminal organization that allegedly smuggled thousands of people without legal status from Guatemala to the U.S. over five years, federal authorities announced Monday.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally called the criminal network “one of the largest human smuggling rings in the nation,” during a news conference Monday. Prosecutors claimed that the organization transported about 20,000 people into Los Angeles and Phoenix from 2019 through July 2024.
The organization is also accused of holding some of the immigrants hostage in stash houses and is responsible for the deaths of seven people — including a 4-year-old child — who were killed in a November 2023 car crash in Oklahoma, according to prosecutors.
All four defendants were identified as Guatemalan nationals who resided in Los Angeles-area neighborhoods, including Westlake, downtown Los Angeles, and South Los Angeles. They were all in the country without legal permission at the time of the alleged crimes, prosecutors said.
The four defendants were charged with one count of conspiracy to illegally bring people to the U.S., transporting people illegally in the U.S., and harboring people without legal status in the U.S. for private financial gain and resulting in death, according to prosecutors. The defendants each face a maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment if convicted on all charges.
“These smuggling organizations have no regard for human life and their conduct kills,” McNally said in a statement. “Their members pose a danger to the public and law enforcement … The indictment and arrests here have dismantled one of the country’s largest and most dangerous smuggling organizations.”
‘Specialized in the smuggling of illegal immigrants’
Prosecutors said authorities arrested two alleged leaders of the criminal organization in Los Angeles on Friday and a judge ordered them to be held without bond. Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, known as “Turko,” and his alleged right-hand man, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, both pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to stand trial on April 22.
According to an indictment unsealed Friday, prosecutors named Renoj-Matul as the leader of the criminal network. The organization has allegedly operated for at least a dozen years and “specialized in the smuggling of illegal immigrants from Guatemala to the United States … and the harboring, concealing, and shielding of illegal immigrants.”
The indictment alleged that Renoj-Matual was assisted by associates in Guatemala who solicited people by taking payments of between $15,000 and $18,000 to be smuggled into the U.S.
Prosecutors added that Mexican smuggling organizations helped transport the immigrants through Mexico and across the U.S.-Mexico border into Arizona, where people would be held in stash houses before they were picked up by Renoj-Matul’s lieutenants.
For an additional fee, the immigrants were transported and moved to various locations in the country, such as Los Angeles and Phoenix, according to prosecutors. Some immigrants who were unable to pay the fees were held hostage in a stash house in the Westlake neighborhood, prosecutors said.
“Renoj-Matul directed that the transportation of proceeds from human smuggling be transported from Los Angeles to Phoenix, where they were given to the Mexican smuggling organization to pay the expenses incurred by Renoj-Matul’s transnational criminal organization,” according to prosecutors.
The indictment further alleged that from April 2024 to July 2024, Renoj-Matul and Mejia-Chaj held hostage two victims and threatened to kill the victims until third parties paid for their release. The two have also been charged with two counts of hostage-taking, according to prosecutors.
Indictment: Man threatened to ‘cut off’ the head of an officer
Prosecutors also charged Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, also known as “Xavi,” and Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj. Obispo-Hernandez was identified as another lieutenant in the criminal organization and is believed to be in Guatemala.
Obispo-Hernandez faces charges in a separate federal criminal complaint filed on Sunday, according to prosecutors. The indictment accuses Obispo-Hernandez of threatening to “cut off the heads of a Homeland Security Investigations Task Force officer and members of his family.”
Obispo-Hernandez allegedly made those threats on Friday while search warrants were being executed at his residence, prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, Paxtor-Oxlaj is currently being held in Oklahoma for his involvement in the fatal Oklahoma car crash, according to prosecutors.
“In November 2023, Paxtor-Oxlaj caused a car accident in Elk City, Oklahoma, while he was smuggling illegal immigrants from New York to Los Angeles,” prosecutors said. “That car accident resulted in the deaths of seven people who were passengers in the vehicle he drove. Of the seven people killed, three were minors, including a 4-year-old child.”
Paxtor-Oxlaj was arrested and charged with being an immigrant without legal status in the U.S. following removal, prosecutors said. He had been previously removed from the country in 2010 and did not have legal permission to re-enter the U.S.
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Charges come amid Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration
Monday’s announcement comes amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, which includes a growing number of ICE raids across the country and the suspension of the CBP One app that allowed migrants to apply for immigration appointments.
After taking office on Jan. 20, Trump almost immediately signed a flurry of executive orders tied to illegal immigration and refugee admissions. The president is also attempting to end birthright citizenship, contrary to the 14th Amendment.
The president has repeatedly said his administration will prioritize deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal histories. ICE has reported that it has arrested thousands of people since around Jan. 23, USA TODAY previously reported.
In recent weeks, numerous demonstrations have popped up across the nation opposing Trump’s immigration policies and other controversial actions.
Contributing: Natalie Neysa Alund and Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY
