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Will La Raza offer free legal help claiming the police only stopped the SUV because there was Mexicans in it ?

March 12th, 2010 8 comments

HARRISONBURG — A man caught in Shenandoah County smuggling 10 illegal aliens in a small SUV will serve three years in prison.

Oliver Leonel Sanchez Ortiz, 23, of Mexico, was sentenced on Feb. 24 in U.S. District Court to 36 months in prison for transporting illegal aliens. U.S. District Judge Samuel G. Wilson placed him on supervised release for three years, according to online court records.

Sanchez Ortiz was sitting in the passenger seat of the Buick Rendezvous when a state trooper pulled it over on Interstate 81 south of Edinburg on Oct. 7, according to an affidavit filed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Souders said the trooper described the passengers as being "stuffed in there like a can of sardines."

"There were 11 of them in a Buick Rendezvous, and seat belts for five," Souders said. "There were at least three in the cargo area of the Rendezvous."

The ICE affidavit says that the 10 men were smuggled across the border at Arizona by a "coyote."

"Upon arrival in Arizona, another Coyote escorted the 10 to a house in Mesa, Arizona (the ‘Drop House’)," the statement says. "At the Drop House, the 10 were not free to leave until they paid the first half of the smuggling fee, which ranged from $1,000 to $1,400; they were locked inside the house while the Coyotes awaited payment."

Sanchez Ortiz then picked them up and headed toward New York, where another payment was to be made, according to the affidavit.

Large sums of money weren’t found on the smuggled men, Souders said, and the initial payments were mostly made by relatives. He said the government doesn’t have evidence directly connecting Sanchez Ortiz to a larger criminal organization.

An unpleasant smell was coming from the vehicle, according to Souders.

"The window was rolled down — I don’t even think it was rolled all the way down — there was a smell of body odor that was sort of permeating from the car that [the trooper] could smell from a foot or two away from the window," he said. "They had traveled over 2,200 miles, all in that vehicle. The trooper found what he believed to be plastic bottles filled with urine in the vehicle."

Souders said Wilson actually went above the voluntary sentencing guidelines when sentencing Sanchez Ortiz. The risk of death or serious bodily injury justified the greater punishment, he said.

According to online court records, 12 additional counts against Sanchez Ortiz were dropped as part of a plea agreement.

"The defendant had previously been removed from the country four times, but none was an official administrative removal or deportation," Souders said. "They were all from closer to the border."

Three of the men from the vehicle received sentences ranging from time served to 10 months in jail for illegal re-entry, according to court records.

"Human smuggling networks extend well beyond our borders into the interior of our country," John P. Torres, ICE special agent in charge in Washington, says in a news release from U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy’s office. "These smuggling organizations not only put those they are smuggling at risk, but also put the American public at risk."
http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2010/03/man-caught-smuggling-illegal-aliens-gets-three-years.php
Will La Raza offer free legal help claiming the police only stopped the SUV because there was Mexicans in it ?

Mexicans are everywhere.
You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one.