Officials in US President Joe Biden's administration announced charges on Tuesday against a profitable human trafficking operation they allege brought migrants — some in suitcases and even water tanks — across the southern border, as the number of illegal border crossings continues to rise.
Associated court documents and those involved with the case say that eight people were indicted for playing a part in smuggling hundreds of people into the country, some hidden in wooden crates on lorries in blistering heat. Another six co-conspirators were cited in the court record.
At a news conference in Washington on Tuesday, US officials with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security said the alleged smugglers were indifferent to human life and concerned only with financial gain.
“They have become increasingly intertwined with the [Mexican drug] cartels and there is increasing evidence of the abuse, exploitation and violence they perpetrate on migrants,” said John Tien, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
“For too long, they have acted with seeming impunity.”
The indictments are part of an expansive effort by President Joe Biden's administration to halt smuggling networks as border arrests creep up towards two million this fiscal year, which began last October.
US prosecutors identified Erminia Serrano Piedra, a Texas resident known as “Boss Lady”, as the mastermind of the operation, which they said generated millions of dollars.
Ms Serrano Piedra deposited more than $1.3 million in two bank accounts between December 2017 and August 2021, though reported only $120,000 to financial institutions, prosecutors claimed in a pretrial motion unsealed on Tuesday.
There was no lawyer listed for Ms Serrano Piedra in a US court record database, according to Reuters.
In June, 53 migrants died after they were trapped in an unventilated lorry in San Antonio, Texas, during an unsuccessful smuggling attempt. Four men, including the alleged driver, have been charged in that incident.
Crackdown on human trafficking — in pictures
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Men arrive at a court in Islamabad to face accusations that they were involved in a trafficking ring that used fake marriages to lure women from Pakistan to China and forced them into prostitution. AFP -
An Interpol agent inspects equipment used to make fake passports. Hamid Reza Jafary, centre, an Iranian citizen, was arrested in 2016 on suspcion of supplying fake passports in Bangkok. EPA -
Thai police with safes seized during a raid on a 'Victoria Secret' massage parlour in Bangkok. The operation was carried out owing to suspicions of trafficking and prostitution. AFP -
Iraqi ISIS member Taha Al-J in court in Frankfurt, Germany to face charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, human trafficking and murder. He was convicted of buying a Yazidi woman and her daughter as slaves. EPA -
The bodies of more than 50 migrants were found in the back of a lorry in San Antonio, Texas. Reuters -
The family of one of the migrants hold a wake at their home in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz state. Reuters -
Turkish security forces raid houses used by smugglers in the eastern city of Van, about 100 kilometres from Iran. EPA -
An Afghan boy hides inside a sewer pipe near Van after crossing the Iran-Turkey border. Illegal immigrants often wait for days for smugglers to take them towards western Turkey. EPA -
Officials in Benin, West Africa, check river crossings and border checkpoints as part of a global crackdown on human trafficking by Interpol. Photo: Interpol -
Officials check vehicles for evidence of human trafficking on the border between Mauritania and Senegal. Photo: Interpol -
Security personnel across Africa have carried out border checks to help tackle people smuggling. Photo: Interpol -
Members of Interpol's border management task force. The agency has carried out operations against trafficking. Photo: Interpol
Reuters contributed to this report
