A Mexican national pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to his role as operator of a human smuggling stash house in Phoenix, following a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Nogales.
The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) Nogales Station assisted with the case.
Macario Ulises Barragan-Cisneros, 45, of Mexico, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 10, 2022, before U.S. District Judge Scott H. Rash. A conviction for conspiracy to transport and harbor undocumented people for profit carries a maximum penalty of 10 years, a maximum fine of $250,000, or both.
Barragan-Cisneros admitted that he conspired to transport and harbor undocumented people for profit. On Sept. 21, Barragan-Cisneros was arrested inside a trailer at the Camino Vista Mobile Home Park, 6532 West Van Buren St. The trailer was used to conceal undocumented noncitizens as part of a transnational human smuggling operation in which foreign nationals were smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona and transported to Phoenix. Federal agents with HSI and USBP located 29 smuggled individuals, all citizens of Mexico or Guatemala, in or around the trailer.