Authorities on Monday morning arrested 44 people believed to be involved in a family-run people-smuggling ring that has been operating out of Bowie for more than a decade.
Eleven others are still wanted and all have been indicted on charges of human smuggling and money laundering.
The arrests are the culmination of a two-year investigation by the FBI, U.
S. Border Patrol, U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Cochise County Sheriff's Department, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The ring, dubbed the Juarez Alien Smuggling Organization, is said to have smuggled hundreds of illegal entrants into the country, primarily from Mexico but also from Central America.
According to investigators, the smuggling ring is headed by Pablo Esteban Stevie Juarez, who inherited the operation from his father, Marcos Ruiz Juarez, and his brother, Marcos Abel Abey Juarez. Pablo Juarez was assisted by his wife, Lori Ann Juarez, and other family members including his father and brother.
He would pay the co-defendants off in cash and drugs.
Authorities said the ring had a monthly contract with people in Agua Prieta, Sonora, to solicit individuals who wanted to be smuggled into the United States. The process, according to the news release, was as follows:
Entrants would be housed in Agua Prieta before crossing into the United States.
Guides would then take them through the desert to a predetermined location along Arizona 80, north of Douglas.
Drivers would pick them up there and take them to Bowie. That trip alone cost the entrants anywhere from $500 to $800.
The illegal entrants could not leave Bowie until their fees were paid by relatives. Then, transportation was arranged to Phoenix and other locations throughout the country. The cost to travel outside of Arizona was as high as $2,000 per person.
Failing to pay the smuggling fees had many consequences, including being assaulted, shot or abandoned, said John Lewis, FBI special agent in charge.
Infants and small children were often separated from their parents and brought across the border by young women who posed as their mothers, he added.
The children were often given sleeping pills or Tylenol to sedate them and keep them quiet while going through a port of entry.
During the course of the smuggling venture, people known as enforcers and guides were usually armed and would use the firearms to intimidate, menace and even shoot those who did not comply with their orders, the news release said.
Fees were always paid through wire services such as Western Union to conceal, promote and disguise the nature, location, source, ownership and control of the smuggling proceeds.
This was not just any family business, said Arizona U.
S. Attorney Paul K. Charlton.
This network organized, housed, fed, guided and transported large numbers of illegal aliens across the border.
Alonzo R.
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