Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office conducted what is being described as significant enforcement operation last week to dismantle a prolific transnational human smuggling organization operating in Nogales, Sonora, along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The targeted human smuggling organization is alleged to be responsible for illegally smuggling large numbers of individuals from Mexico, Central America, and South America into the District of Arizona and other locations throughout the United States.
The enforcement operation on March 2, 2022 included the execution of six arrest warrants in Mexico for smuggling coordinators: Arturo Tienda-Garcia, aka “Tuercas,” Jose Guadalupe Tienda-Garcia, aka “Pantera,” Gilberto Escalante-Osuna, aka “Mochomo,” Uriel Cruz-Tienda, aka “Quiqui,” Cristal Tolentino-Hernandez, and Alfonso Sotelo-Contreras, aka “Pajaro.”
To date, the DOJ has prosecuted U.S.-based coordinators and operators with alleged ties to the same smuggling organization including Benjamin Gallegos, Amalia Gonzalez-Lara, Sergio Vazquez-Flores, Macario Ulises Barragan-Cisneros, Jaziel Tienda-Ibarra, Daniel Garcia-Salgado, Cesar Bermeo-Diaz, Isamar Chaparro-Vizcarra, and Oswaldo Tienda-Castro. These nine individuals have been convicted of Conspiracy to Transport and Harbor Illegal Aliens for Profit.
Additional alleged coordinators for the organization have been indicted by a federal grand jury on alien smuggling charges including Enrique Villalobos-Lopez and Ian Esteban Serrano.