By: Las Vegas Now Staff
The recent bust in Phoenix of a group smuggling illegal immigrants through the U.S. has ties to Las Vegas.
An Arizona task force discovered five travel agencies trying to smuggle illegal immigrants from Arizona through McCarran airport. It’s a lucrative business involving illegal smugglers, and it’s centered right here in Las Vegas.
Here’s how authorities say the operation works: Smugglers drive immigrants from Mexico and Central America to Phoenix. From there, the immigrants are brought to McCarran, where they try to catch flights to various places around the country.
Airport officials are not commenting, but local Hispanic advocate, Dr. Miguel Barrientos, says these smugglers are out for one thing, blood money.
“You got the coyotes. They don’t care about the individuals, they care about the mighty dollar. They risk people’s lives and create legal problems for them down the road, not to mention the major financial burden they put these families in,” he said.
Nevada has no state laws prohibiting alien smuggling. A total of five travel agencies were busted in Arizona for catering to human smugglers. No agencies have been in trouble in Nevada.
In May of 2007, Eyewitness News caught Border Patrol agents at McCarran Airport, patrolling the terminals in an attempt to detour illegal smuggling.
At that time, McCarran officials released this statement detailing their work with authorities:
“We have been fully aware of these issues by law enforcement agencies, including customs and border protection. Airport officials have cooperated with all law enforcement activities at this airport.”
But the Border Patrol agents at the airport were short term. Barrientos says smugglers know how to play the smuggling game.
“Organized crime will look at every loophole available in the law that they might be able to get through. They found one here and they went right through. That’s a lot of money and a lot of people going through here,” he said.
According to a report from Arizona authorities, 15,000 one way tickets originated out of McCarran, totaling more than $3 million. It’s a number federal agents are working to lower.
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