SEATTLE (KOMO) — Two men connected to a northern border people smuggling scheme recently made their initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Jesus Ortiz-Plata, 45, of Independence, Oregon, and Juan Pablo Cuellar Medina, 35, of Everett, Washington were arrested May 23 with three non-citizens who had been smuggled into the United States from Canada.
The arrests were the result of a lengthy investigation by Homeland Security Investigation’s Border Security Enforcement Team (BEST), according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“These defendants have allegedly been linked to an extremely dangerous smuggling scheme where people are loaded into freight cars on trains traveling from Canada into the U.S.,” said U.S. Attorney Gorman. “Being locked in a freight train car is dangerous – there is no control over the heat, cold, or ventilation, and people can be injured or killed by shifting freight. In one dangerous instance last August, some 29 people were rescued from a boxcar filled with plastic pellets.”
Border Patrol and investigators encountered non-citizens who had illegally attempted to cross the border who would use a phone number as a point of contact since late 2022. The phone number was later linked to Ortiz-Plata and once he was identified law enforcement got court permission to locate the signal from his cell phone.
On Thursday, May 23, Ortiz-Plata traveled from his home in Oregon and was followed from Seattle to an apartment in Everett. He left the apartment with three non-citizen men. All four were taken into custody.
Two had crossed the border in a freight train car and one claimed he had walked across the border and been picked up on the U.S. side.
Medina was the resident of the apartment where the men had been staying. Medina was arrested and was identified by one non-citizens as the person who had picked him up after they crossed into the U.S.
Conspiracy to commit illegal transportation of a non-citizen for private financial gain is punishable by up to ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The DOJ said the charges contained in the criminal complaint are only allegations. The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Border Security Enforcement Team, U.S. Border Patrol, and Border Patrol Air and Marine Group.
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