Men Sentenced To Federal Prison For Running Massive Human Smuggling Ring Out Of LA

LOS ANGELES, CA — Two Los Angeles County men who helped run what prosecutors called one of the largest human smuggling organizations in the nation were each sentenced Friday to federal prison terms for illegally moving undocumented immigrants from Guatemala into the United States for profit.

Some newly trafficked noncitizens were held captive in a MacArthur Park-area "stash house" until their smuggling fees were paid, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The scheme's leader, Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, 53 — known as "Turko" — of the Westlake district near downtown, was sentenced to nearly 22 years behind bars for running the organization.

He pleaded guilty in March to one federal count of conspiracy to bring, transport and harbor aliens in the United States for private financial gain, plus one count of hostage taking.

Renoj-Matul admitted in his plea agreement that the organization moved nearly 20,000 undocumented immigrants from Guatemala into the U.S. from 2019 through July 2024 — including seven who died in a car crash in Oklahoma in 2023.

Once the immigrants were smuggled into the United States, some were held in a stash house on James M. Wood Boulevard in Westlake or in Phoenix, Arizona, until smuggling fees were paid, authorities said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office stated that Renoj-Matul's accomplices in Guatemala solicited immigrants to come to the United States, accepted payment of between $15,000 and $18,000 for each person, and coordinated their transport through Mexico to the United States.

Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, 51, also of Westlake, was sentenced to two years and nine months in federal prison.

Mejia-Chaj pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge as Renoj-Matul.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Valenzuela sentenced both men Friday in downtown Los Angeles.

In November 2023, one of the group's members caused a car crash in Elk City, Oklahoma, while he was smuggling undocumented immigrants from New York to Los Angeles. That crash resulted in the deaths of seven people who were passengers in the vehicle he drove. Of the seven killed, three were minors, including a 4-year-old child, court papers show.

According to the indictment returned last year, the "Renoj-Matul transnational criminal organization" operated for at least a dozen years.

Prosecutors said that in 2024, Renoj-Matul and Mejia-Chaj held hostage two Guatemalan nationals smuggled into the United States who had not paid smuggling fees. The defendants threatened to kill the victims unless third parties paid for their release, prosecutors said.

Co-defendant José Paxtor-Oxlaj, 46, a driver for the organization, was sentenced by Valenzuela in July to six and a half years in federal prison and ordered to pay about $65,000 in restitution in connection with the fatal crash.

Helmer Obispo-Hernández, 42, an alleged lieutenant in the organization, faces charges in the case and is a fugitive, officials said.

City News Service