Five Individuals Charged with Smuggling After 90 Migrants Found in Houston House
Authorities have identified five individuals as being responsible for the human smuggling operation that was uncovered last week in a Houston neighborhood. The human smuggling house as described by investigators was uncovered after authorities received a call Thursday evening about a possible kidnapping. It was then that the police were led to a neighborhood in southwest Houston. The Houston Police Department initially shared in a tweet to the public on Friday that a “dozen” individuals were found in the home.
The initial call was made by a woman who had reported her brother as having been kidnapped. In a statement from the Department of Justice, officials explain, “[the woman] had paid several thousand dollars for him [her brother] to be smuggled into the United States, according to the charges. However, the smugglers had allegedly demanded additional money before they would release her brother. They also threatened to kill him, according to the charges.”
The Assistant Police Chief Daryn Edwards explained, "When they got inside the house they realized that this is actually going to turn into a human smuggling investigation." He added, "It was a big surprise when we got in the house and saw what we saw."
Edwards highlighted that the situation was indicative of human smuggling and not human trafficking. Ninety-seven individuals were removed from the two-story home. All were adult males except for five women.
In a police briefing, authorities announced that the individuals in the home did not have any serious injuries. However, many of the individuals appeared to have symptoms of the coronavirus. Officers described that several individuals reported not being able to taste or smell and some were visibly sick with high fevers. The Health Department soon joined the investigation and offered rapid testing. The individuals were also given food and water as they expressed to authorities that they “had not eaten in a while.”
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that five individuals were arrested in connection to the operation. They include Marina Garcia-Diaz, 22, of El Salvador; Henry Licona-Larios, 31, of Honduras; Kevin Licona-Lopez, 25, of Honduras; Marco Baca-Perez 30, of Mexico; and Marcelo Garcia-Palacios, 21, of Mexico.
All five individuals were charged with "harboring and concealing the migrants for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain.” The DOJ shared in a press statement that all the migrants in the house were undocumented immigrants who resided in the U.S. It is not clear how long they had been in the country.
If convicted, each suspect could face a fine of up to $250,000 along with a maximum of ten years in federal prison.
This smuggling bust is the latest in a string of investigations revolving around migrants being packed into residential houses in areas near the border. Four homes were raided in the Rio Grande Valley within a seven-hour period on Wednesday and resulted in 52 migrants being found in these “smuggling stash houses.” In February, authorities responded to a call where 71 illegal immigrants were found stashed in another residence in Pharr, Texas. And just recently, at the end of April, authorities uncovered another 43 illegal immigrants in at least three stash houses in Edinburg, Texas.
As the border crisis continues to unfold and migrant stash houses continue to pop up throughout border states, the Biden administration has put effort into cracking down on the human smuggling tactics. The Department of Homeland Security is forming an operation known as “operation Sentinel" in cooperation with the FBI, the State Department, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The mission of the operation is to track the patterns of smugglers and disrupt their operations.
