A human smuggling stash house was operating in Phoenix, Arizona with nearly 30 people living inside. On October 18, 2021 Macario Ulises Barragan-Cisneros, 45, pleaded guilty in federal court to his role as operator of the illegal immigrant stash house. Macario is a Mexican national.
Following a probe by ICE, Macario admitted that he conspired to transport and harbor undocumented people for profit. On September 21, 2021 Macario was arrested inside a mobile home trailer in Phoenix.
The trailer was used to conceal illegal immigrants as part of a transnational human smuggling operation in which foreign nationals were smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona and transported to Phoenix.
Federal agents located 29 smuggled illegal immigrants, all citizens of Mexico or Guatemala, in or around the trailer.
Macario is scheduled to be sentenced on January 10, 2022, before U.S. District Judge Scott H. Rash. A conviction for conspiracy to transport and harbor undocumented people for profit carries a maximum penalty of 10 years, a maximum fine of $250,000, or both.
