The Department of Justice announced earlier this week that
it has charged 14 members of a vast immigrant smuggling organization, while
eight others were arrested for smuggling hundreds of illegal immigrants into
the United States.
A grand jury in Las Cruces, New Mexico, returned an
indictment against 14 people for conspiracy to transport, harbor, and introduce
illegal immigrants into the United States. According to a press release from
the Department of Justice, eight of the defendants were arrested.
“Today’s indictment alleges that the defendants engaged in a
sophisticated conspiracy to smuggle immigrants into and through the United
States, at great risk to themselves, resulting in the death of one person,”
stated Supervisory Officer Antoinette T. Bacon of the Department of Justice’s
Criminal Division.