U.S Attorney’s office in Las Cruces to announce multi-agency efforts to disrupt transnational human trafficking and smuggling

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- The United States Attorney's Office held a press conference Thursday, July 25th at 12:00 PM at 200 North Church Street Las Cruces, NM 88001. They announced the results of a multi-agency effort to disrupt transnational human trafficking and smuggling.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Las Cruces said that law enforcement have dismantled the Lopez Human Smuggling Organization. Homeland security says they had been investigating the criminal family and their operations for at least 3 years. This is a transnational human smuggling organization.

According to the indictment, 8 members of the Lopez Organization have been indicted and 2 have been arrested. The indictment states 46-year-old Ronaldo Galindo Lopez-Escobar, a-k-a “Tio Roni,” lead the operation from Guatemala. Investigators say he coordinated with Mexican human smugglers to smuggle people from Guatemala through Mexico into the U.S. using the Southern New Mexico border, including Las Cruces. 

U.S. Attorney Alexander M.M. Uballez for the District of New Mexico called it "a victory" in the fight against human smuggling and delivered these remarks: "We're forfeiting over half $1 million in proceeds, a Corvette and seizing 11 bank accounts. And we're excited to announce that the United States Department of Treasury has sanctioned the Lopez Human Smuggling Organization, thereby blocking all property of the organization and prohibiting all transactions with the organization from folks in the United States. Transnational criminal organizations who don't care if a mother is left in the desert or a child drowns in a river."