Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a search warrant earlier in March and discovered 19 people in a north Phoenix home who had been illegally smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border.
On March 2, a search warrant for human smuggling was issued for the residence at 1535 West Desert Cove Avenue.
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According to court records from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, investigators also arrested two “load drivers who also acted as caretakers of the residence”: Gabriel Garcia-Lopez and Alvaro Ojeda-Gomez.
The 19 people discovered in the property, known as “the Ark Apartment” in court filings, were all transported to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Phoenix Field Office for processing.
One of the individuals brought into the Ark Apartment stated that their final destination was Tennessee.
The investigation also included a second living space at 11045 North 17th Avenue, where HSI investigators apprehended a man and woman attempting to flee the area in a white Chevrolet Equinox.
Monjarez-Perez said he supervises Garcia-Lopez and Ojeda-Gomez, and his major employer is known as “Pinki” and is based in Mexico. Ojeda-Gomez confirmed to agents that they are from Mexico and are unlawfully present in the United States, whereas Garcia-Lopez “opted not to make a statement without the presence of a lawyer.”
According to court documents signed by HSI special agent Scott Toole, Monjarez-Perez, Garcia-Lopez, and Ojeda-Gomez “did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with persons known and unknown to transport and move within the United States aliens who had come to, entered, and remained in the United States in violation of law.”
