Suspected human smuggler arrested near Loving, 2nd suspect arrested

A Young County sheriff ’s deputy arrested a 31-year-old Honduran man and detained seven other people near Loving in a blow to a suspected human smuggling operation that has been funneling illegal immigrants through the county to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Chief Deputy John Orr said.

The deputy stopped a silver Honda SUV at the intersection of State Highways 114 and 16 at Loving for a traffic violation at 10:30 a.m. on July 24. He discovered two women and five men inside the vehicle along with driver Terry Israel Oliva-Reyes, the chief deputy said.

The deputy interviewed the passengers and “their stories didn’t add up,” Chief Deputy Orr said.

“Eventually we got information that they had crossed over illegally and had paid a large amount of money to do it,” he said.

The passengers said Oliva-Reyes had picked them up in Hobbs, New Mexico, and planned to drop them off in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where some would get transportation to other states.

“A couple of them were going to Mississippi and Georgia,” Chief Deputy Orr said. “It’s not necessarily that they are going for jobs. They have family and friends who are already here. They are just coming over to meet up with those folks.”

Oliva-Reyes was arrested and charged with Engaging in Organized Smuggling of Persons and is being held in the Young County Jail in lieu of $40,000 bail, jail records show.

The passengers, who were Mexican and Central American citizens, were taken into custody and released to U.S. Border Patrol personnel, who transported them back to Mexico, he said.

At 7:45 p.m. the same day, the Jack County Sheriff ’s Department arrested 25-year-old Rafael Ibarra for suspected trafficking of persons for forced labor, according to Jack County jail records.

The arrests mark at least the third arrest of human smugglers along State Highway 114 within 30 miles of Olney in the past two months. A 34-year-old Mexican woman was arrested over Memorial Day weekend just outside of the Olney city limits for allegedly smuggling 11 illegal immigrants in a Honda Odyssey van bound for the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, law enforcement officials said

“[State Highway] 114 is a good road if you want to avoid the interstate highway,” Chief Deputy Orr said.