EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Federal officials are linking members of a violent Mexican drug gang to a migrant stash house raided last week in Sunland Park, New Mexico.
The U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations and Sunland Park Police Department officers participated in a Feb. 6 search at an undisclosed address that resulted in the apprehension of 22 citizens of Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala illegally present in the United States.
Additionally, Border Patrol agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers stopped three vehicles near the Vinton, Texas, exit of Interstate 10 with another seven migrants and three suspected smugglers.
One of the drivers, whose black Hummer was earlier observed at the targeted residence, allegedly told investigators he was working directly with members of La Nueva Empresa, a transnational criminal organization based in Juarez, Mexico. Ulises Marquez said his role in the organization was to harbor undocumented non-citizens at the home and arrange for their transportation to the interior of the United States in exchange for money, according to a federal complaint filed Feb. 9 in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.
Mexican authorities previously told Border Report that La Nueva Empresa, known across the border simply as La Empresa, or The Company, is one of the most violent drug gangs in Juarez. In El Paso, federal officials accused one of the founders of La Nueva Empresa of murder, racketeering and drug conspiracy, and linked him to the murder of a U.S. consulate employee and two other people in Juarez.
Marquez is in custody on migrant transportation charges and for allegedly having an undisclosed amount of marijuana in the Humvee, which was pulling a horse trailer with expired license plates.
One of the 22 unauthorized foreign nationals in the Sunland Park residence also has been charged. Investigators earlier had observed Carlos Alexis Estrada Peralta go in and out of the house and at times driving the black Hummer to run errands, court documents show. Estrada allegedly admitted to investigators he received money for caring for the other migrants and helping arrange their transportation.
The other two drivers, Angel Hernandez Ibarra and Luis Alfonso Corral Rubio, told investigators they were undocumented migrants themselves and were transporting unauthorized non-citizens, court records show.
A fourth driver, Venezuelan national Alexander Guzman-Guzman, was arrested as he drove to the residence in a red Audi and made a U-turn when he observed law enforcement vehicles. According to court documents, DPS troopers stopped the Audi once it crossed the state line into Texas for having a fraudulent license plate. Guzman allegedly told investigators he received money for transporting migrants and he previously had received documents to be present in the United States legally.
The Border Patrol said it could not provide additional details at this time because the case remains under investigation.
Records show Marquez, Hernadez, Corral, Estrada and Guzman made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory B. Wormuth on Feb. 9 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on charges of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens. A detention hearing has been scheduled for Feb. 14.
