JUSTICE DEPARTMENT Published July 31, 2023 8:44am EDT
Texas human trafficking ring accused of smuggling hundreds of migrants in squalid conditions faces new charges
New money laundering charges reveal how alleged human smugglers concealed payments for moving migrants across the border
By Danielle Wallace | Fox News
Alleged participants in a Texas human smuggling network accused of harboring hundreds of migrants in squalid conditions were hit with new money laundering charges Friday, as federal prosecutors claim compensation for trafficking illegal immigrants across the border was concealed as payments for phony construction jobs.
New charges were filed against Erminia Serrano Piedra, 32, also known as Irma or "Boss Lady" and Oscar Angel Monroy Alcibar, 40, also known as Pelon, both of Elgin, Texas; Pedro Hairo Abrigo, 34, of Killeen, Texas; and Juan Diego Martinez-Rodriguez, 38, also known as Gavilan, of Dale, Texas.
According to the superseding indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas, the four defendants "conspired to engage in financial transactions designed to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, and control of ill-gotten proceeds of illicit human smuggling and the unlawful harboring and transportation of undocumented aliens."
"Boss Lady" and the other three allegedly recruited and used straw persons to accept human smuggling proceeds in their bank accounts, and then transferred these proceeds to the leaders under the pretense of "work" payments for construction, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-human-trafficking-ring-accused-smuggling-hundreds-migrants-squalid-conditions-faces-new-charges
