Group charged in deadly human smuggling attempt (The Monitor)

Group charged in deadly human smuggling attempt

February 19, 2010 9:09 PM

Jeremy Roebuck

McALLEN — Federal agents have arrested the alleged driver and four other men connected to a deadly human smuggling attempt that killed an undocumented immigrant earlier this month.

Prosecutors allege Jose Mario Salinas, 21, abandoned at least 12 injured migrants in the brush after wrecking the Toyota pickup truck he was driving near the Brooks-Hidalgo County Line. The collision ejected one of the immigrants, who later died, according to a criminal complaint filed in his case.

U.S. Border Patrol agents discovered the crash survivors later that day, who led them to a stash house in Pharr where they had been kept prior to their attempt to sneak into the U.S. interior.

There, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested three men — 21-year-old Jovany Calderon Vargas, 32-year-old Nestor Paul Flores Perez and 25-year-old Jesus Alejandro Amaya Arevalo — for allegedly running a human smuggling organization.

Those men pointed investigators to yet another home in Peñitas, where they said Salinas and his purported guide — Gabriel Dominguez Benitez, 24 — could be found.

All five men have been charged with harboring illegal immigrants and are being held without bond pending a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

Because an immigrant died in connection with their alleged smuggling operation, each could face up to life in prison if convicted.