Gregory A. White, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Brian M. Moskowitz, Special Agent in Charge, U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Investigations, Detroit, Michigan, and Robin M. Dalgleish, Inspector in Charge, Pittsburgh Division, United States Postal Inspection Service, today announced that an indictment was unsealed naming 25 defendants in a 23-count indictment related to alien smuggling. This morning, arrest warrants were executed in Painesville, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Phoenix, Arizona. A total of 13 defendants were arrested and are currently in custody. An additional 3 defendants were already in federal custody serving federal sentences in other cases.

The Indictment charges that since 1997, Manuel Valdez-Gomez, a native of Mexico and a lawful permanent resident alien, living in the Phoenix, Arizona area led an alien smuggling organization with members of his immediate family and others. For a fee of between $1,800 and $2,000 each, aliens would be smuggled across the border from Mexico to the Nogales, Arizona, area. During the course of the conspiracy, hundreds of undocumented aliens were smuggled into the United States. Once across the border, the conspirators then used motor vehicles and a network of safe houses to transport the smuggled aliens first to Phoenix, Arizona, and thereafter to various interior states, including Ohio.

Count 1 charges Manuel Valdez-Gomez and 21 others with participating in a conspiracy to smuggle aliens into and within the United States between 1997 and March 15, 2006. Count 3 of the indictment charges the Valdez-Gomez conspiracy members with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, document fraud and structuring financial transactions.

Counts 2 and 4 charge other conspirators with participating in a spinoff conspiracy led by J. Santana Hernandez-Gomez and Gregorio Aranda-Moreno (not charged in this indictment but separately charged in a criminal information filed in January of 2006) since October of 2004. Specifically, count 2 charges conspiracy to smuggle aliens into and within the United States and count 4 charges conspiracy to commit mail fraud and document fraud. A total of 6 aliens are named in these counts, excluding Gregorio Aranda-Moreno and Albaro Loza-Aranda, each the subject of separate prosecutions.

According to the indictment, it was a part of the conspiracy that Manuel Valdez-Gomez operated an alien smuggling organization, initially utilizing the assistance of relatives and thereafter expanding the operation to include non-relatives who assisted him with fee arrangements to smuggle aliens into the United States. The coconspirators would use safe houses under their control and operated by Jesus Sosa-Ortiz, Jaime Hernandez-Ornelas, J. Santana Hernandez-Gomez and others, to temporarily situate aliens who had been escorted across the border from Mexico to the Nogales, Arizona, area. During the course of the conspiracy, hundreds of undocumented aliens were smuggled into the United States. Manuel Valdez-Gomez would arrange to smuggle aliens into the United States and use drivers to transport aliens from the border area to Phoenix, Arizona, and thereafter to ultimate destinations in Ohio, California, Florida, Nevada, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and other interior states. Drivers would transport as many as fourteen aliens on each trip into the interior of the United States, where the aliens would be met by friends or family members who would then pay the drivers the smuggling fee.

It was a part of the conspiracy that in support of the alien smuggling operation, undocumented aliens were provided with fraudulently made sets of alien registration cards, social security cards, and other identification documents, for an additional fee over and above the fee they were paying to be smuggled into and within the United States, and that the United States mails were often used to transfer fraudulent documents, information necessary to preparing those fraudulent documents, and payments.

It was a part of the conspiracy that express mail was used by the drivers of loads of undocumented aliens as a means of transferring large amounts of cash and money orders back to the coconspirators in Phoenix, Arizona, thereby lessening the risk, if apprehended, of being identified as an alien smuggler and alien transporter.

It was a part of the conspiracy that the drivers and operators of safe houses located in northern states would avoid detection and facilitate sending the proceeds of the illegal alien smuggling activities in a structured way, knowing that action would avoid the reporting requirements related to cash transactions greater than $10,000 and $3,000. The coconspirators would divide payments of large amounts of money intended for Manuel Valdez-Gomez, which represented the proceeds of alien smuggling, into smaller transactions (often $2,900) and would further divide payments by wiring them to different individuals in the Phoenix, Arizona area, knowing the payments were truly intended for Manuel Valdez-Gomez. Between February 9, 2000, and December 9, 2003, large amounts of money representing proceeds of alien smuggling and document vending were wired by Western Union Financial Services, Inc., from drivers, collectors, and safehouse operators to Manuel Valdez-Gomez, sending the currency by wire to a number of individuals who collected the money on his behalf. The following aggregate amounts of proceeds from the illegal activities of the conspiracy were received between February 9, 2000, and December 9, 2003, by the following coconspirators: $304,499 to Manuel Valdez-Gomez; $291,926 to Rafael Valdez-Gomez; $256,855 to Yolanda Sosa; $164,030 to Patricia Hernandez; $42,900 to Isidro Aranda; $32,100 to Jose Valdez; and $16,995 to Ricardo Aranda-Moreno.

Counts 2 and 4 charge conduct regarding a spinoff conspiracy which occurred beginning in October of 2004. According to the indictment, J. Santana Hernandez-Gomez and Gregorio Aranda-Moreno (not charged in this indictment) each originally participated in the conspiracy headed by Manuel Valdez-Gomez. They both, independently of each other, split off from that conspiracy and initiated operating an alien smuggling organization. The two organizations shared resources with each other to conduct the alien smuggling operation, enlisting the aid of other coconspirators to operate safe houses under their control to temporarily house aliens who had been escorted across the border from Mexico to the Nogales, Arizona, area, and utilized drivers to transport the smuggled aliens from the border area to Phoenix, Arizona, and thereafter to ultimate destinations in Ohio, California, Florida, Nevada, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and other interior states as part of the fee. During the course of the conspiracy, in excess of one hundred undocumented aliens were smuggled into the United States. As part of the conspiracy and in support of an alien smuggling operation, undocumented aliens were provided with fraudulently made sets of alien registration cards, social security cards, and other identification documents, for an additional fee over and above the fee they were paying to be smuggled into and within the United States. The United States mails were often used to transfer fraudulent documents, information necessary to preparing those fraudulent documents, and payments for those documents. It was also part of this conspiracy that express mail was used by the drivers of loads of undocumented aliens as a means of transferring large amounts of cash and money orders back to the coconspirators in Phoenix, Arizona, thereby lessening the risk, if apprehended, of being identified as an alien smuggler and alien transporter.

Counts 5 through 11 charge various members of the conspiracies with aiding and abetting bringing aliens into the United States. Counts 12 throught 15 charge various members of the conpiracies with aiding and abetting mail fraud and mail fraud.

Counts 16 through 20 charge various members of the conspiracies with aiding and abetting the structuring of money transactions. For example, Count 20 charges that Jesus Sosa-Ortiz, between March 5, and March 12, 2002, wired six money transfers to Patricia Hernandez, Yolanda Sosa, and Raphael Valdez-Gomez with a total value of $19,500, from Chicago, Illinois, and Ashtabula, Ohio. From Ashtabula, Jesus Sosa-Ortiz on March 12, 2002 had wired $4,000 to Manuel Valdez’s brother Raphael, two separate $2,900 transfers to Yolanda Sosa (Manuel’s daughter and Jesus’s wife), and $2,900 to another of Manuel’s daughters, Patricia Hernandez. From Chicago, on March 5, 2002, Jesus Sosa-Ortiz sent two $2,900 transfers, one to Patricia Hernandez and one to Yolanda Sosa.

Counts 21 and 22 charge Jesus Sosa-Ortiz with social security fraud and aggravated identity theft. Count 23 charges Ricardo Aranda-Moreno with the transfer of fraudulent identification documents.

As part of the indictment, forfeiture allegations are included which seek the forfeiture of seven real properties in the Phoenix, Arizona area. The value of the real properties exceeds $1,000,000. The indictment further states that the properties were used to facilitate the criminal activity charged in the indictment and/or constitute proceeds of that criminal activity. The forfeiture allegations also seek forfeiture of the gross proceeds of Counts 1 and 2, including $1,109,305 in wired cash transfers received by members of the conspiracy charged in Count 1 of the indictment.

Preceding the indictment, Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiated the joint investigation with the United States Postal Inspection Service. Assisting in the investigation were the following law enforcement agencies: The Cleveland, Phoenix, and Grand Rapids offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (including the Asset Identification and Removal Group in Phoenix, Arizona), the Cleveland, Phoenix, and Grand Rapids offices of the United States Postal Inspection Service, the United States Border Patrol, the Painesville Police Department, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Lake County Narcotics Agency, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the Eastlake Police Department, and the United States Attorney’s Offices in Phoenix and Grand Rapids. The indictment was presented to the grand jury by Assistant United States Attorneys Phillip J. Tripi, Gary D. Arbeznik, and James L. Morford.

If convicted, each defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to the case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

NEWS RELEASE ATTACHMENT

Unsealing of Indictment in United States v. Manuel Valdez-Gomez, et al.