(The Central Square) – Federal and local law enforcement officers have dismantled one of the largest human smuggling rings in US history.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol, and Inglewood Police investigators in California launched an investigation that resulted in the arrests of four Guatemalan human smuggling ringleaders who were all illegally present in the United States.
They were charged and indicted on multiple counts for orchestrating what authorities described as one of America’s largest human smuggling organizations.
They were indicted on charges of smuggling approximately 20,000 Guatemalans into the United States over the course of five years. According to a recently unsealed indictment, the smuggling operation operated across the country for approximately 12 years.
Authorities arrested Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, the alleged ringleader, and his alleged right-hand man, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, in Los Angeles’ Westlake neighborhood. They were arraigned on the same day and ordered jailed without bond; a trial is scheduled for next month.
Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, a lieutenant in the criminal organization who is still on the run, and Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj, a smuggling organization driver, are also charged.
Paxtor-Oxlaj is currently incarcerated in Oklahoma for causing a November 2023 car accident that killed seven people, three of whom were minors, in Elk City, Oklahoma.
The accident occurred during a smuggling operation in which he was transporting illegal foreign nationals from New York to Los Angeles, authorities said. He was arrested and charged in the Western District of Oklahoma.
He had previously been removed from the United States in 2010 and illegally reentered as a gotaway, which is someone who illegally enters between ports of entry and intentionally avoids capture. During the Biden administration, a record number of illegal immigrants entered the United States, according to The Center Square.
The four Guatemalan men were charged with “conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States, transporting aliens in the United States, and harboring aliens in the United States for private financial gain and resulting in death,” according to the indictment.
Renoj-Matul and Mejia-Chaj were additionally charged with two counts of hostage-taking. According to the indictment, from April 2024 to July 2024, they held hostage two Guatemalan nationals who had been smuggled into the United States but had not paid their smuggling fees, threatening to kill them unless third parties paid for their release.
In a separate, more recent complaint, Obispo-Hernandez was accused of threatening to cut off the heads of an ICE task force officer and his family members. He allegedly made the threats after a search warrant was executed at his home.
According to the indictment, the Renoj-Matul transnational criminal organization existed for at least a dozen years and specialized in smuggling Guatemalans into the United States, primarily transporting illegal foreign nationals from Phoenix to Los Angeles.
Renoj-Matual’s associates in Guatemala allegedly solicited Guatemalans to travel to the United States, charging between $15,000 and $18,000 per person to be smuggled in, according to investigators.
Once in Mexico, Mexican cartel smugglers transported them through the country and across the US-Mexico border in Arizona. According to the indictment, they were held hostage in stash houses in Arizona before being rescued by Renoj-Matul’s lieutenants.
The smuggled Guatemalans paid an additional fee to be transported across the United States, including Los Angeles. According to the complaint, those who couldn’t pay were allegedly held hostage in a stash house in Los Angeles’ Westlake neighborhood, near downtown.
Renoj-Matul also orchestrated the transportation of human smuggling proceeds from Los Angeles to Phoenix, which were then given to Mexican smugglers “to pay the expenses incurred by Renoj-Matul’s transnational criminal organization,” according to the complaint.
If convicted of all charges, the four Guatemalan ringleaders face a maximum sentence of death or life in prison.
Authorities also apprehended two more illegal foreign nationals and alleged lieutenants of the Renoj-Matul transnational criminal organization.
Rolando Gomez-Gomez, who had previously been deported, was arrested in South Los Angeles and charged with “one count of being an illegal alien found in the United States following removal.” Juan Lopez Garcia was arrested in Downtown Los Angeles for a civil removal case.
The smuggling bust came after nearly one million Guatemalans illegally entered the United States during the Biden administration, according to The Center Square.
