LIVE: Bondi Holds Press Conference on Combatting Human Smuggling

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Greg Kehoe. I'm the U. S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. Thank you for coming. Uh, we have a presentation and a press release for you today and a press conference. And this is dealing with alien smuggling and human trafficking, something that are our priorities for the Department of Justice and for the Attorney General Pam Bondi. We have an array of U. S. Attorneys here that are going to give you an idea of the cases that are before us. And just briefly, before I bring the Attorney General up, you know, to my far left is Justin Simmons, U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas. To his right is Mike Drescher, the U. S. Attorney for Vermont. And to his right is Nick Ganji for the Southern District of Texas. On my far right is Matt Galeotti, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the criminal division. At this point, I'd like to present to you the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi. Thank you, U. S. Attorney Kehoe. Thanks for everything that you're doing into all our incredible U. S. Attorneys around the country. My first day as Attorney General under President Trump's leadership, we announced that the Department of Justice would pursue the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations. Thanks to President Trump, many of these groups, many of these gangs are now classified as foreign terrorist organizations because they pose an extreme threat to not only our country, but to our world. They traffic drugs, weapons and people. Every American community destroyed drives up their profit margins no longer. We're investigating and prosecuting their crimes more aggressively than ever. And Joint Task Force Alpha is the tip of the spear. We have been working on that with Secretary Kristi Noem, Homeland Security, and I cannot say enough good things about Secretary Noem. I was with her in Louisiana yesterday, and she is fighting to keep our country safe every single day. This just this week, Joint Task Force Alpha took four major enforcement actions right here in Tampa. We unsealed the indictment, charging 12 defendants operating a massive right here in Tampa, a massive illegal smuggling ring. The defendants engaged in a conspiracy to bring illegal aliens from Cuba to the U. S. For profit, they coached their clients, including children who came to airports alone, came to our country alone, were put on planes for connecting flights, lied to Border Patrol agents due to coaching, and law enforcement. They charged up to $40,000 per victim. They used Zelle to transfer over seven million dollars over the course of this scheme, and I believe had profits cash of over 18 million. And it's just not the southern border. In Vermont, and U. S. Attorney Drescher is here with us, we indicted Norma Lorenzo, a woman who allegedly worked with Canadian co-conspirators from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and El Salvador. Children were transferred to private residences, other airports, and in 2023, according to CBP, parts of Vermont and New York started seeing unprecedented traffic from illegal aliens. Law enforcement officers operating in these areas encountered aliens from 97 different countries, including China, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea and Yemen. In the southern district this week of Texas, and Nick Ganges here, we secured the extradition of three men from Guatemala who have been charged in connection with a mass casualty alien smuggling event. This tragic event occurred in 2021 in Chiapas, Mexico. Chiapas, Mexico. A semi truck containing at least 160 illegal aliens crashed, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 people. The cost of human smuggling is huge. So many families are dying. So many people are dying. These smugglers used a variety of vehicles, including micro buses, tractor trailers, and cattle trucks to smuggle multiple Guatemalan aliens, including many unaccompanied minors into this country. In the western district of Texas, where Justin Simmons is our U.S. attorney, we just this week charged four defendants with their role in a deplorable scheme smuggling unaccompanied children into the United States from Mexico. These monsters behind the operation drugged unaccompanied children coming into our country, giving them THC so they would be asleep when passing through customs. One of the children was overdosed so badly that the child had to go to the hospital. Since President Trump took office, Joint Task Force Alpha has charged 56 defendants, including convicting a monster who attempted to bring in Indian nationals into our country in sub-zero weather through Canada in the middle of a blizzard. This was a family of four. This family was eventually found dead in a blizzard with the father holding the three-year-old little boy wrapped in a blanket with his glove covering his child's face, trying to save his life. In June, we arrested a Canadian-American citizen in New York for charging $1,000 for every illegal alien he smuggled over the St. Lawrence River into our country. One of the votes capsized, killing a family, including two children under the age of three. A few weeks ago, we convicted a coyote in Texas. A coyote, of course, is someone who transports illegal aliens across state lines for money. In Texas, we charged him for charging $30,000 for every 10 illegal aliens that he could get to the Rio Grande. He got an additional $30,000 for every 10 illegal aliens that made it across the Rio Grande alive. That is why we are now expanding Joint Task Force Alpha. It has five steps. We will now cover, the task force will now cover, our northern border in Canada, of course, and all of our maritime borders. Our incredible partner again at DHS, Kristi Noem, and I are expanding this to include our DEA, ATF, and FBI agents to this task force to give us even more manpower. We will receive more resources to prosecute these cases and key figures in cartel, human trafficking, and transnational criminals. We will strengthen our collaboration with foreign law enforcement throughout this world to protect not only their citizens, but ours, and return these criminals to American soil for prosecution. Under President Trump, we have coordinated more closely with our U.S. Attorney's offices to protect unaccompanied children being smuggled into our country from exploitation. One of the task force's greatest accomplishments has been demonstrating how dangerous human smuggling and trafficking are for those being transported. For those who are considering paying to be smuggled into the U.S., it is not safe for you or for your families. These coyotes are coordinating with terrorist organizations, collecting money from them to bring families and unaccompanied children into our country. These operations are getting people killed. Let me be clear, if you smuggle human beings, you will be found, you will be prosecuted, and you will be brought to justice. It doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter what our borders are, the limit of where our country ends and another begins, but it does not limit our law enforcement capabilities to bring you to the United States and prosecute you and lock you up for as long as we can. Thank you and God bless you. Thank you, General Bondi. I'm sure you, ladies and gentlemen, can see the commitment of the Attorney General to this endeavor. We just want to take a few minutes of more of your time and give you a little bit more detailed flavor of the cases that we have before you and the nature and extent of the horrific crimes that are taking place that General Bondi just outlined. After we finish these very brief comments, it will be open for questions at that point. Just bear with us and we'll be there very soon. The first case we're talking about is the case here in Tampa that General Bondi was talking about United States versus Cabrera, which is 12 defendants, an international alien smuggling ring, and they also engaged in asylum fraud. And why did they do it? They did it for money and money alone. As General Bondi just noted, we have tracked at least $18 million trafficking through their account and laundered through their accounts to pay their expenses to pay their co conspirators. This was a profit making motive that went on between 2021 and today, 2025. How did it happen? They use social media. They went on social media with Cuban individuals to tell them that they could get Cuban individuals and get them visas based on fraudulent conduct by putting their visas, which were based on European citizenship. They had co conspirators throughout the world to gather these people up to try to get their money to participate in this. And I say kill co conspirators. There are numerous co conspirators. There were thousands of people, aliens listed in their ledgers that they were doing this with. Their ledgers were sophisticated, as sophisticated as any business that you will come across. Their ledgers had dates of travel, money owed, airlines used smuggling routes. How did they do it? They used, they brought these people through charters and and commercial airlines through other countries. They put the fraudulent documentation together with these individuals. Of course, as General Bondi just noted at $40,000 apiece, they spent millions of dollars uh flying these people throughout the country before they came back into the United States. They would provide them with fraudulent visas based on the fact that they were saying that they were not in Cuba after 2011 when of course they were with this fraudulent document. They coached these people once they came to enter into the United States. How did they coach them? They coached him to tell, make sure you tell these people that you're a tourist, make sure you tell them that you're just here for a visit and of course conceal the fact that you had come from Cuba and then after and when you get into the United States lay low for a while. Don't make any noise about things. Why? Because at the appropriate time they wanted you to come forward to seek asylum being a cuban national. So they would then prepare the asylum applications which were likewise fraudulent. So they're preparing fraudulent document to get into the country, preparing fraudulent documentation to get asylum. And ladies and gentlemen, this was all for money and it was a sophisticated enterprise with multiple shell corporations being used and transferring money throughout the country. We have, we have uncovered at least 27 known bank accounts with these people to transfer their money between and among each other's pay for expenses and people overseas and using money to move in and out of their shell corporations to hide it, which is the substance of the money laundering charge. Suffice it to say, the bottom line of this is that it was a business, a criminal business that was set up for one reason and one reason only to make money on the backs of these people and at the expense of the american people by defrauding them and in doing so they passed at least at least $18 million through their bank accounts. That's a brief overview of the Tampa case. Obviously it is now open for uh open for review because it's no longer sealed and I would want to want if I can, I want to turn this over to my friend from the southern district of texas, Nick Ganji who will give you an idea of the case that he is going to present from his district. Nick, Madam Attorney General. Good afternoon. My name is Nicholas Ganji, the United States attorney for the southern district of texas. The american people have been told time and time again that insisting upon a secure border and an orderly immigration process somehow lacks compassion. But what the disastrous record of the last four years has shown is that an open border is anything but compassionate and perhaps the most pernicious and cruel outgrowth of our once open border is the rise of the cartel backed human smuggling industry and make no mistake, it is indeed an industry. Human beings are treated like commodities stacked like cordwood in dangerous and sometimes deadly conditions. All it takes is one faulty air conditioner or one wrong turn of the steering wheel to turn a smuggling run into a mass casualty event. The sad example of this is the 2021 smuggling crash in Chiapas Mexico where a tractor trailer carrying 160 people overturned costing the lives of 50 including Children and injuring more than 100 others. The southern district of texas along with joint task force alpha has worked tirelessly to bring justice to to those responsible for this great tragedy. Last year, a grand jury in the southern district of texas indicted six guatemalan nationals for conspiring to smuggle these victims into the United States. And on december ninth of last year, the third anniversary of the crash, Guatemalan authorities arrested the four remaining conspirators who are residing overseas. I'm pleased to announce today that three of these alleged conspirators have just been extradited to the United States and are making their initial appearance today in Laredo texas with a fourth defendant on the way. I am grateful to our Guatemalan partners for their assistance in delivering these defendants to us so that these accused smugglers can learn a little bit about what texas justice looks like. But the southern district of texas work with joint task force alpha has yielded other successes as well. A few notable examples. We indicted and convicted 14 defendants who conspired to smuggle hundreds of illegal aliens via dangerous methods, including packing them in suitcases, repurposed water tankers and wooden crates with little ventilation or room to move. We recently obtained police from six smuggling defendants who among other things left a man to die of heat exhaustion in the texas brush. We indicted and convicted a human smuggler that transported dozens of illegal aliens, including minors, and then led police on a high speed chase the streets of Laredo. And we obtained 103 month sentence against a former CBP officer who betrayed his oath and took bribes to allow illegal aliens and cocaine to pass through his lane at a port of entry. Smuggling is a wicked and remorseless business and it has no place in any civilized society, let alone the United States and the southern district of texas will do whatever it takes to eradicate this industry once and for all and to put those responsible in prison for as long as the law allows. So for those considering coming to this country illegally, our message is clear. Don't do it. Don't put your life or safety or those of your loved ones into the hands of the cartel. They do not care if you or your Children have access to food, water or even air to breathe. They do not care if you live or die. And our message to these smugglers is equally clear. You can run, but you can't hide. If you're not already in cuffs, you will be in cuffs soon because the United States does not forget. With that, I'm gonna turn it over to United States attorney for the western district of texas, Justin Simmons. Thank you all for being here today. My name is Justin Simmons. I'm the U. S. Attorney for the western district of texas. Thank you, General Bondi for organizing this today. Also want to thank President Trump for the encouragement and the motivation he's given all of us to take down these alien smuggling organizations and the cartels that they work with. You know, Juarez, Mexico is right across the border from El Paso, texas. And for years, Juarez has been plagued by violence, kidnapping and murder. Cartels have been worrying over that area for decades because it's a key route for trafficking drugs and smuggling humans into the United States. These cartels have no bottom. There is no limiting principle on how low they will go to enrich themselves. We saw an example of this recently in a case where a woman named Susana Guadian ran a alien smuggling organization out of Juarez. She worked with her husband Daniel, her daughter Diane and Diane's husband Manuel Valenzuela to smuggle Children from Mexico into the United States. Basically, what she would do was contact U. S. Drivers who would come across and pick up these Children and then take them back across the border. Prior to being picked up, Susanna would prep these Children by sometimes telling them what to say when they got to the P. O. E. The port of entry or a checkpoint. Other times she would give them THC gummies, as General Bondi said, uh, to calm them and keep them compliant throughout the process. In this particular case, the Children that were given the THC gummies were 1293 and two. When CBP recognized when they were trying to cross with this group of Children that something wasn't right, they saw it. They realized those Children needed some kind of medical treatment. They got a couple of them to the hospital to receive that treatment. They were later diagnosed with THC poisoning. As U. S. Attorney Ganji said, as General Bondi said, these cartels, these organizations do not care about you or your Children when moving them across the border. So we're really happy that we were able to get arrest warrants this weekend and get at least two of these individuals, Diane and Manuel Valenzuela off the street. The two other individuals, Susanna and Daniel Guadian are still at large, but we will do everything we can to bring them to justice as well. You know, nothing crosses the border without the cartels permission, and nothing crosses without payment to the cartels. These cartels see Children just like they see a kilo of coke dollar signs. That's all they see. They care nothing about their well being. Additionally, these organizations often use stash houses in American neighborhoods where they will put these aliens that they're smuggling across for days, weeks at a time. This endangers those neighborhoods, endangers those people who live in those areas, and it brings organized crime to Main Street USA. We will not have it. We will do everything we can to shut down these organizations because it hits the cartels where it counts in their pocketbooks. That is all they care about, how much money they can make, and it makes America safer for Americans. It makes this place this country a place where you as an American cannot just survive but thrive. So that's what we're committed to. I want to thank our partners with Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection and HSI for their work on this case. I also want to thank Joint Task Force Alpha and their help putting this case and many other cases together. You know, in San Antonio earlier this year, we got life sentences on folks who had smuggled individuals in a tractor trailer into the United States. 54 individuals, 53 plus one unborn child, um, died in the back of that tractor trailer. Um, so I'm really helpful for really thankful for Joint Task Force Alpha and the work they've been doing with with us as well. We are on a mission to shut down these organizations and the cartels more broadly in the Western District of Texas. This is what we do. Thank you very much. So lest you think this problem is just on the south border in Texas and Florida, I'd like to bring up a U. S. Attorney Mike Drescher from the District of Vermont. Mike, I want to thank you, Attorney General Bondi for your remarks, and I want to thank you, U. S. Attorney Kehoe for your hospitality hosting this event. I especially want to thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for bringing attention to the extraordinary work that the men and women of the United States Border Patrol and Homeland Security investigations are doing in Swanton sector, the portion of the U. S. Canada border that includes Vermont, Northern New York and New Hampshire. Thanks to their work and the work of Joint Task Force Alpha, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont has obtained a seven count indictment charging Norma Linda Lozano, who's 53 years old of Ypsilanti, Michigan, with one count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and six counts of bringing aliens to the United States who lacked permission to enter or to remain in this country. As alleged in court filings through much of 2000 and 24 Lozano repeatedly smuggled and attempted to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States from Canada. She did this for profit, negotiating payment with her Canadian co conspirators and coordinating with them the locations where she would pick up her loads of non citizens aliens entering the country. As alleged Lozano's methods included echoing some of the comments we've already heard today, hiding a child alongside luggage in the far recesses of the vehicle that she was traveling in, disregarding the child's safety and welfare. These offenses are serious for several reasons. First, they aid and abet those who are seeking to enter the country illegally. Second, they exploit those people who are desperate and misguided enough to try to enter the country illegally. On the northern border, such illegal crossings frequently involved trekking through forests and swamps in inhospitable and dangerous circumstances. And third, they facilitate the unvetted aliens entering the United States for unknown and possibly nefarious purposes. In short, offenses such as those charged pose a risk to the nation's security, and the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont is proud to work with the United States Border Patrol, Homeland Security and Joint Task Force Alpha to help secure the northern border. Ms Lozano was arrested Tuesday of this week in the Middle District of Georgia, where today she had her initial appearance in Albany, Georgia. She's been transferred to have subsequent appearances in the District of Vermont. Last, I want to recognize the hard work of Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew Lasher and Michelle Ara, who, under the leadership of Jonathan Opart, the chief of the criminal division for the District of Vermont, have teamed up with Task Force Alpha trial attorney Jenna Reed to seek to hold Lozano and others engaged in similar conduct responsible for these offenses. Thank you. We're ready to take questions if you want to direct them to any of the states. Just let us know questions. We'll have it if we start on this side of the room and go over any questions. Are you saying connection that ruling effect your plan? First to the National Guard, we will be following the law. We are appealing that ruling and we plan on being successful in court. We anticipate very much being successful. Back to this. Yes, these these transnational criminal organizations, since we have secured completely our southern border, are finding various ways to come into our country. And as our U. S. Attorney in Vermont knows, the northern border, it always has been, but it's gotten much worse, much more prevalent because they are. It's such a it's a multi billion dollar business, the smuggling of drugs, guns and humans. And so they're not gonna quit once we secured our southern border. But yes, we're stopping them at our northern border. And that's why we're also increasing Joint Task Force Alpha to include our maritime ports as well. Any other questions? First for you, or I'm not sure the Tampa part of it first, but when it comes to Tampa, do you have any ideas why they set up shop here in Tampa? And then the question about Tampa would just be how much of this is going on right now. This seems like a pretty deep thing that was happening here. Can you just start throwing darts in the map and find these kinds of groups? Can I start in on that first? Because I know you're a Tampa reporter, and that's why I think it was so important to have it here because people are expecting this in Texas and big cities. And Tampa is a big city, but it is everywhere. It touches, I think every city in our country and traveling around this country. It's everywhere. It's everywhere you go, because our borders were wide open and guns, drugs, gangs were coming in terrorist organizations into every city in our country. We arrested very recently, 20 minutes outside of our nation's capital, one of the top MS 13 members in the entire country. One of them was arrested also in Portland, Oregon. So it's very organized. They are spread throughout this country and U. S. Attorney Kehoe. I'll let you take it from Tampa with regard to Tampa. This has been going on for a significant period of time. Our investigation takes us back to at least 2021. And these people aren't some individuals from far off areas. They're from neighborhoods right here in Tampa from addresses that you know that you could pass in public or walk on the street. Why did they set up here? Because they would start it up in 2021 operated undetected. And let's be perfectly honest, as General Bondi said, $18 million in an entity that was moving in a tremendous speed, but in a relatively short period of time, $7 million going through Zell alone. So why did they come here? Because they lived here. They were here. They set up and did business here, and it was profitable different services, schools and parks. I mean, were they living otherwise ordinary lives from all intents and purposes? I can't answer that question factually, and I don't want to mislead you, but I don't have any information to say that they weren't. I can't say that they were sending their Children to local schools, but they were certainly living here and doing business here. Attorney General, now that you're seeing this from inside, you obviously spend time in state government law enforcement. Now that you're seeing it from the federal level, how would you characterize what you become aware of? How much this is going on around? It seems like these cases are just a few of what you can highlight. And these were not coordinated arrest or extraditions. These are four that all happened in a week. And because the majority involved unaccompanied Children and human smuggling, we wanted to highlight those and why we're expanding our task force. It's shocking being in the state of Florida being a state prosecutor, but now on a national level and an international level, seeing the amount of human smuggling that goes on and child exploitation and the amount of drugs that freely flowed into our country for four years has truly been horrific, and we're doing everything in our power to stop it. And we're also meeting with our partners around the world to work hand in hand with them as well. So just since January 20th, we have chart in Tampa. You're specifically Tampa, but Joint Task Force Alpha has charged 55 defendants just since just recently, just since January, 55 have been charged. And these are no, no, no. From from all over the country. Major, major cases. But I'll let U. S. Attorney Kehoe answer. Answer Tampa. It's everywhere. Yes, I mean, to take with the general says this is this is everywhere. This is just not a part time thing. Why? Because it's a profitable thing. Other cases under under investigation here in Tampa. Yes, numerous cases. Yes, I can't get into the details of those, but this is not the last last case of this fashion that we're going to do. Border Patrol and H S. I are out there day after day, week after week, conducting investigations. So we'll be. Will there be more such cases being indicted along the way? Their answer is yes. I don't wanna speak for my colleagues, but I should. I assume that they would echo my response in that regard. Take one more. Go ahead. Good afternoon to you all support the cartels that are successful in smuggling Children over. What are they doing with them once they're successful in that the the Children there? They're either being trafficked. We've seen multiple, multiple cases of Children being trafficked, who have come across our borders, come into our country, and they're being there. They're being put on planes by themselves. When I was at the border in September, I went to the border in September in Yuma, Arizona, and they had a term and it was called a recycled child. And these border patrol agents were seeing a little boy coming across our border multiple times. They saw him coming in as part of a family unit, which is often how they use Children to get horrible criminals into our country posing as a family unit. But these kids are coming from all over the place, and we don't know many of them where their parents were. That's why we're struggling to find that out to prosecute all of them. But it was a recycled child, and these very vigilant border patrol agents recognized a little boy coming across coming across. This was last September, and they couldn't figure out how he was going back and forth so easily. Well, our borders were wide open, and if you dropped your I. D. S. I saw I. D. S. That we're just piled up from every country you can imagine. If you dropped your passport, if you dropped your I. D. One, they had a military member from China dropped his I. D. You could walk right into this country and say you were from anywhere you wanted to, and that's what we have stopped, and that's what we're going to prosecute. So they're using these Children, many of them to exploit them to help other gangs, cartels throughout this country. Some of these cases when we're arresting these cartel members, they have Children with them who are not related to them in their homes. Thank you. Thank you all for being here, and thank you for, um, taking such, um, close attention and realization to what's happening throughout our country affecting Children. Have a great day.