Commercial transportation companies implicated in sweeping ICE investigation targeting Arizona human smuggling networks

PHOENIX - The owners and employees of five Arizona commercial shuttle services are among the 47 criminal suspects taken into custody following the execution of federal search and arrest warrants across the state Thursday in a far-reaching investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeting the infrastructure of several major Arizona-based human smuggling organizations.

Thursday's enforcement actions are the culmination of a comprehensive year-long ICE investigation that expanded beyond its initial focus on several Tucson-based shuttle companies allegedly used by smugglers to transport thousands of illegal aliens from southern Arizona to the Phoenix area. The bi-national investigation, which included unprecedented cooperation with Mexico's Secretaria Securidad Publica (SSP), ultimately implicated high-level members of human smuggling organizations in Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales, Ariz., and northern Mexico that were serviced by the shuttle businesses.

At a news conference here Thursday afternoon, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE John Morton and Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke outlined details of the investigation, dubbed "Operation In Plain Sight" because of the brazen nature of the transportation companies' activities. Authorities characterized the case as the most comprehensive human smuggling investigation in ICE history.

"This operation has dealt a serious blow to the infrastructure of some of Arizona's most prolific and profitable human smuggling organizations - organizations that made their money by moving people," Assistant Secretary Morton said. "The defendants wrongly believed they could operate with impunity by hiding behind the veil of legitimacy these businesses provided. Using our investigative expertise, we've dismantled these transnational organizations and literally seized the engines that were driving the criminal enterprise."

"Today's indictments allege a remarkable degree of coordination among alien smuggling organizations and shuttle company operators - all of whom shared a common currency - people and money," U.S. Attorney Burke said. "According to the indictments, the defendants conspired to transport thousands of people across the border and onward to destinations throughout the United States - much of it playing out in the light of day under the guise of legitimate business."

In a massive operation, more than 800 agents and officers from nine federal, state and local law enforcement agencies mobilized Thursday morning to carry out the arrests and searches in four Arizona communities - Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales and Rio Rico. In addition, agents from Mexico's SSP have also made arrests in neighboring Nogales, Sonora, related to the case.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE comprises four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities. For more information, visit www.ICE.gov. To report suspicious activity, call 1-866-347-2423.


[Posted by Marwin Yeung]

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1004/100415phoenix.htm