The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday the sentencing of a Phoenix man who led a human smuggling ring which moved illegal immigrants from Central America and held them in Arizona before driving them to destinations across the United States.
Tony Cardenas, a 36-year-old man from Phoenix, was sentenced to four years in prison and three years of supervised release earlier this month for his role as “the leader of a Phoenix-based human-smuggling operation” involving a total of at least 19 criminals, the DOJ announced. Cardenas is of no known relation to U.S. Representative Tony Cardenas (D-CA-29).
A press release by the DOJ revealed that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – Sells and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) began investigating Cardenas and his criminal organization in 2018.
Investigators shortly discovered illegal immigrants “being moved from Central America and Mexico to the Tohono O’odham Nation where they were directed to nearby stash houses or picked up and taken to stash houses in the Tucson and Phoenix areas,” and identified Cardenas and his criminal associates.
The investigation ultimately determined that Cardenas and his associates used “stash houses” to hold illegal immigrants in Phoenix “until final payment was received” for their illegal transportation into the United States.
