CBP El Paso District Nabs 77 and a Fugitive in a Stash House, Five New Targets in Chihuahua

U.S. Border Patrol Agents and law enforcement partners arrested an individual wanted for murder as part of a group of 77 smuggled migrants discovered in two stash houses in El Paso.

U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector Anti-Smuggling Units (ASU), Homeland Security Investigations, El Paso Texas Constables and Texas Department of Public Safety served a warrant on a property on Overland Avenue encountering 72 individuals living in overcrowded and squalid conditions. Border Patrol Agents had received information regarding a possible stash house in that area.

When searching the premises, agents located migrants inside a storage shed with limited air flow, small windows and piles of trash. Agents identified two of the migrants at the property as the caretakers of the residence and both will face charges for human smuggling.

During the investigation, agents discovered a second property on Val Verde Street with five additional migrants. The 77 migrants were from Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, and were found to be in good condition. All migrants encountered were processed under Title 8 for removal.

During records checks in the processing center, one of the arrested individuals from the Dominican Republic was identified in The International Criminal Police Organization database as wanted for murder in his country of origin.

During Fiscal Year 2024, El Paso Sector human smuggling interdiction teams have uncovered more than 270 stash houses in the sector with 2,663 migrants taken into custody.

“The citizens in our local El Paso community provide an important partnership to help us safeguard our city. We encourage anyone with information to report suspicious activity to our office. A phone call could help our agents disrupt criminal smuggling and possibly save lives,” said A. Scott Good, El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent

U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican law enforcement has also partnered in the State of Chihuahua and announced five new criminal targets for the Se Busca Información initiative. Se Busca is a partnership between law enforcement in the United States and Mexico that names wanted individuals and seeks information from the public through an anonymous tipline to help apprehend dangerous criminals wanted on both sides of the border.

“The men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection are working every single day to combat the criminals and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) through a multilayered enforcement approach, together with our partners,” said Acting Deputy Commissioner Pete Flores. “The Se Busca initiative is a key part of these efforts to apprehend dangerous criminals wanted on both sides of the border – and we need the public’s help to identify and interdict these criminals that threaten our shared safety.”

The individuals being announced today as part of the Se Busca initiative are associated with TCOs and are wanted for crimes ranging from human smuggling and narcotics trafficking, to sex crimes against children and murder.

To encourage the public’s assistance in reporting, the individuals’ pictures are placed on posters, flyers, and billboards at locations throughout the El Paso, Texas region in the United States and across the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. People who have information about the targets can confidentially report this information to law enforcement via phone or WhatsApp message at +1 915-314-8194. The phone line is open 24 hours a day and calls will be received in English and Spanish. The calls go directly to an El Paso Sector U.S. Border Patrol call center. Information is then shared with law enforcement on both sides of the border.

Since 2019, the Se Busca initiative has run several campaigns along the U.S.-Mexican border, and they’ve led to the successful arrests of nine wanted subjects from previous campaigns and four additional criminals not on the target list, as a result of information received from the public to the tipline. These individuals were sought by both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement.

“This binational initiative between the United States and Mexico is in the best interest of both countries to promote a safer and more secure shared border region,” said Anthony “Scott” Good, U.S. Border Patrol Chief for the El Paso Sector. “It is vital that we continue to engage with community stakeholders and individuals on both sides of the border to obtain their help in finding these dangerous criminals.”

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