The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Tuesday announced the indictments of eight leaders of a human smuggling operation (HSO) at the US-Mexico border. The effort was a part of the DOJ’s Joint Task Force Alpha, a law enforcement task force assembled in June 2021 to combat dangerous human smuggling and trafficking groups operating out of Latin America.

According to the indictment, the HSO profited from smuggling hundreds of undocumented Mexican, Guatemalan, and Columbian aliens into the US. Families would pay up to a $2,500 fee per individual for the HSO to transport them into the US and keep them at “stash houses.” The HSO transported individuals by “hiding them in suitcases placed in pickup trucks; transporting aliens in the back of tractor-trailers…[,] covered beds of pick-up truck beds…[,] empty water tankers…[and] empty boxes that were strapped to flatbed trailers.” The indictment alleges that the transport methods put the aliens in danger because of the lack of ventilation, tight spaces, ability to become overheated, and high driving speeds.

US Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery said, “Sadly, this case is an example of what we see in our district, too many times, especially in our border communities,” and “[n]o amount of money should be a substitute for a human life.”

The arrests are part of Joint Task Force Alpha’s efforts to crack down on human trafficking. Joint Task Force Alpha was created in June 2021 as a partnership between the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security. The goal of the task force is to “disrupt and dismantle those human trafficking networks operating in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, with a focus on networks that endanger, abuse, or exploit migrants, present national security risks or engage in other types of transnational organized crime.”