County law nabs 21 for human smuggling

Olney and county law enforcement arrested 21 people in three separate instances of suspected human smuggling on State Highway 114 in a 24hour period, law enforcement officials said.

The arrests – one in Olney and two east of Jean – came during routine traffic stops on the evening of Nov. 28 and early morning hours of Nov. 29, and follow the Nov. 12 arrest near Loving of a Honduran man attempting to smuggle nine people to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, law enforcement officials said.

It is not clear why traffickers are getting caught more frequently on State Highway 114 on their way to the Metroplex, but greater enforcement activity on U.S. Route 287 could be pushing them to look for alternate routes, Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck said.

Sheriff ’s deputies arrested Elmer Yonatan-Dionicio, 24, of Guatemala late on Nov. 28 after pulling over his sport utility vehicle on a traffic violation, Chief Deputy John Orr said. The SUV was occupied by eight passengers from Mexico and Guatemala, including a 14-year-old, he said. Further investigation revealed the driver was smuggling the other individuals across the state for a fee, Chief Deputy Orr said. Mr. Yonatan-Dionicio is being held at Young County Jail in lieu of $40,000 bond, jail records show.

A second stop occurred a few hours later when deputies pulled over an SUV driven by Willy Geobani Funez-Flores, 36, of Honduras, who was transporting eight passengers from Honduras, Mexico and Ecuador. Under questioning, the passengers revealed that they also were being smuggled across the state for a fee, Chief Deputy Orr said. Deputies also discovered 26 grams of cocaine in the vehicle. Mr. Funez-Flores was charged with smuggling of persons and possession of a controlled substance over 4 grams, and is jailed in lieu of $40,000 bond, jail records show.

All of the passengers were detained and released to U.S. Border Patrol, Chief Deputy Orr said.

Next, Olney Police Officer Miranda Wright stopped a 2010 Acura sedan with Tennessee license plates for speeding on Main Street at about 4 a.m. and questioned a visibly nervous driver and four passengers, Chief Birbeck said.

“The story was, they were coming from Tennessee going to Fort Worth. They were a little too far west for going to Fort Worth and they were headed east on [State Highway] 114,” Chief Birbeck said. “She started questioning the driver. When she started questioning whether he knew the names of the people in the car, he was unable to answer the questions that a normal person traveling with people would know.”

Each of the passengers told a different story and was headed to a different destination, he said.

“The dots connected that none of them were residents or on visas … to be in the United States,” he said. Officer Wright then contacted the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Young County Sheriff ’s Office to take custody of the arrestees, he said.

Driver and suspected smuggler Daniel Abdiel Salazar Siguenza, 20, was arrested on a third-degree felony charge of smuggling persons and his vehicle was seized. He was jailed in Young County in lieu of $40,000 bond, jail records show. The passengers, Angel Ramirez Suarez, 22; Antonio Bautista, 51; Ascencion Jimenez Diaz, 34; and Diana Paola Gabriel Salazar, 22 were turned over to federal immigration authorities, Chief Birbeck said.