TUCSON, Arizona – A Mexican citizen pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to his role as operator of a lock house in Phoenix after investigating the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Nogales Border Patrol Station (USBP) supported the case. Macario Ulises Barragan-Cisneros, 45, of Mexico, is due to be tried in U.S. District Judge Scott H. Rash on January 10, 2022. A conviction of conspiracy to carry and house undocumented people carries a maximum penalty of 10 years, a maximum penalty of $ 250,000, or both. On September 21, Barragan-Cisneros was arrested in a trailer at Camino Vista Mobile Home Park, 6532 West Van Buren St. The trailer was used to hide undocumented non-nationals off the U.S.-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona, and transported to Phoenix as part of a transnational people smuggling operation that smuggled foreigners over. Federal agents with HSI and USBP located 29 people smuggled, all citizens of Mexico or Guatemala, in or around the trailer in June, working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to mobilize the Department of Justice’s investigative and prosecutorial resources to target the U.S. Enforcement efforts against the most productive and dangerous people smuggling and trafficking groups in Mexico, Guatemala, El. to strengthen Salvador and Honduras. The task force focuses on disrupting and dismantling smuggling and human trafficking networks that abuse, exploit or endanger migrants, pose a threat to national security and are implicated in organized crime. JTFA is comprised of federal attorneys and attorneys from the U.S. attorneys along the southwestern border (Arizona District, Southern District of California, Southern District of Texas, and Western District of Texas), the Criminal Division and the Civil Rights Division, and the Legal Department of DHS enforcement officers and analysts. The FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration are also part of the task force. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, Tucson handled the indictment). HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 specialty agents stationed in 220 cities across the United States and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest overseas investigative presence and one of the largest international US law enforcement presence.
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