Smuggling Southern California

A 23-year-old San Ysidro man pleaded guilty Tuesday to an immigrant smuggling charge connected with the U.S. Border Patrol chase and crash in Temecula that killed six people and forced the agency to revise its chase policy.

Three men were sentenced to prison Monday for smuggling dozens of undocumented immigrants through the mountains of eastern San Diego County on a trek that turned deadly during a spring snowstorm last year. The men had pleaded guilty in January to immigrant smuggling that resulted in one death. Five people died and more than 50 were left stranded during the April 1999 storm.

The discovery of two battered and bleeding men, clad only in underwear and cowering in a West Covina back yard, has sparked a widespread investigation into the months-long torture and extortion of a dozen Chinese immigrants by operators of a sophisticated Southern California smuggling ring. The two men told authorities they were being held with 10 other immigrants in a home but had managed to escape by jumping from a second-story window.

A seven-month investigation by federal and Orange County drug agents led to the arrest this week of more than a dozen people suspected of moving cocaine from Mexico through Southern California to Chicago. Authorities said the investigation involved the Orange County Regional Narcotics Suppression Program, the Internal Revenue Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs.

Authorities stumbled onto a dramatic illustration Monday of the grim business of smuggling human freight: more than 100 frightened, sweaty illegal immigrants crammed tightly into a single truck. The passengers--men, women, children--were banging on the walls and shouting for air, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mary Oncale. She stopped the vehicle about 1 p.m. as it struggled up a grade on Interstate 15 near Escondido, about 30 miles northeast of San Diego.

Three men were sentenced to prison Monday for smuggling dozens of undocumented immigrants through the mountains of eastern San Diego County on a trek that turned deadly during a spring snowstorm last year. The men had pleaded guilty in January to immigrant smuggling that resulted in one death. Five people died and more than 50 were left stranded during the April 1999 storm.

A Pomona man was sentenced to five years in federal prison Tuesday, completing the successful prosecution of a ring that smuggled undocumented immigrants from central Mexico to Southern California and held them for ransom. Moises Barraza Armenta, 20, was the last of six people to be sentenced after prosecutors used for the first time a federal hostage-taking law designed to combat international terrorism to win stiff sentences for a crime committed inside the United States.

A federal grand jury indicted a Carlsbad motel operator, five Los Angeles men and a Mexican national on charges of running an alien-smuggling ring that whisked about 600 people per month to Santa Ana and Los Angeles. The manager of the Travel Inn Motel, Bharat Thakkar, 28, of Carlsbad was charged with conspiring to smuggle aliens and two counts of harboring aliens, federal prosecutors said.

A seven-month investigation by federal and Orange County drug agents led to the arrest this week of more than a dozen people suspected of moving cocaine from Mexico through Southern California to Chicago. Authorities said the investigation involved the Orange County Regional Narcotics Suppression Program, the Internal Revenue Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs.

In the latest crackdown on drug smuggling in Southern California, police Thursday arrested seven reputed top drug dealers and confiscated 418 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $118 million. Arrested in Thursday's four raids in Walnut and Ontario were six Colombian nationals and one Nicaraguan, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Michael Celmer said.

The discovery of two battered and bleeding men, clad only in underwear and cowering in a West Covina back yard, has sparked a widespread investigation into the months-long torture and extortion of a dozen Chinese immigrants by operators of a sophisticated Southern California smuggling ring. The two men told authorities they were being held with 10 other immigrants in a home but had managed to escape by jumping from a second-story window.

Authorities stumbled onto a dramatic illustration Monday of the grim business of smuggling human freight: more than 100 frightened, sweaty illegal immigrants crammed tightly into a single truck. The passengers--men, women, children--were banging on the walls and shouting for air, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mary Oncale. She stopped the vehicle about 1 p.m. as it struggled up a grade on Interstate 15 near Escondido, about 30 miles northeast of San Diego.

A 23-year-old San Ysidro man pleaded guilty Tuesday to an immigrant smuggling charge connected with the U.S. Border Patrol chase and crash in Temecula that killed six people and forced the agency to revise its chase policy.

A Pomona man was sentenced to five years in federal prison Tuesday, completing the successful prosecution of a ring that smuggled undocumented immigrants from central Mexico to Southern California and held them for ransom. Moises Barraza Armenta, 20, was the last of six people to be sentenced after prosecutors used for the first time a federal hostage-taking law designed to combat international terrorism to win stiff sentences for a crime committed inside the United States.

A federal grand jury indicted a Carlsbad motel operator, five Los Angeles men and a Mexican national on charges of running an alien-smuggling ring that whisked about 600 people per month to Santa Ana and Los Angeles. The manager of the Travel Inn Motel, Bharat Thakkar, 28, of Carlsbad was charged with conspiring to smuggle aliens and two counts of harboring aliens, federal prosecutors said.

Members of a joint narcotics investigation unit seized nearly one ton of cocaine and arrested three people allegedly involved in the Orange County-based conspiracy, authorities said Monday. Investigators with the Regional Narcotics Suppression Program, together with the FBI, seized 1,976 pounds of cocaine Thursday at an unoccupied Cerritos residence, according to Orange County Sheriff's Lt. Dan Martini.

Border Patrol agents say immigrant smuggling in Southern California is on the rise despite U.S. efforts to tighten the country's borders in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "The more effective we become at controlling the border, the more people have to turn to smugglers to enter the country illegally," said Border Patrol spokesman Ben Bauman, whose office monitors the 66 miles of border in San Diego and parts of Riverside, Orange and Imperial counties.