Human Smuggling Ring Brought 20,000 Guatemalans to U.S., Indictment Charges

Federal prosecutors accused a Guatemalan man with leading one of the largest human smuggling operations in the U.S. and with holding some immigrants hostage in stash houses, Courthouse News reports. The 51-year-old Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul of Los Angeles, otherwise known as “Turko,” was charged along with 49-year-old Cristobal Mejia-Chaj with one count of conspiracy to bring aliens into the U.S., one count of transporting aliens in the U.S., one count of harboring aliens in the U.S. for private financial gain and resulting in death, and two counts of hostage taking. "These smuggling organizations have no regard for human life and their conduct kills," said Acting United States Attorney Joseph McNally in a written statement. "The indictment and arrests here have dismantled one of the country’s largest and most dangerous smuggling organizations."

The indictment accused the men of being responsible for bringing in roughly 20,000 undocumented immigrants from Guatemala during the last five years, and that one attempt to transport them led to a horrific car crash in 2023 in Oklahoma that killed seven migrants, including three minors, one of whom was 4 years old. According to the indictment, Renoj-Matul worked with associates in Guatemala, who charged between $15,000 and $18,000 to coordinate the long journey from the Central American country to the U.S. Immigrants were often taken to a stash house until the fee was paid in full. "If an illegal alien’s smuggling fees were not paid," prosecutors say in their indictment, Renoj-Matul and his crew "would hold that illegal alien against their will... until their fee was paid." In April 2024, according to the indictment, someone "reneged" on a promised payment for one woman that had already been smuggled into the U.S. by Renoj-Matul's organization. Renoj-Matul then called her mother and threatened that she "'would come home in a box' if her smuggling fees were not paid," according to the indictment. Four other alleged associates of the crew were charged or are already in custody.