LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – Five Los Angeles-area residents have been indicted for operating a human smuggling scheme that in many cases involved specially-built compartments under the hoods of cars.
The operation relied largely on non-Spanish speaking African-Americans to transport loads of illegal aliens from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Los Angeles area.
Four of the defendants, including the suspected ringleader of the scheme, Maria “Reyna” Lopez-Diaz, 60, of Compton, were taken into custody Thursday morning by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Border Patrol.