Skip to main content

13 Marines charged in case related to human smuggling operations

Thirteen Marines have been formally charged with involvement in human smuggling operations, the US Marine Corps announced Friday.

The Marines will face military court proceedings for alleged violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including failure to obey an order, drunkenness, larceny, perjury and transporting and/or conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants.

“Two of the Marines, Lance Cpl. Byron D. Law and Lance Cpl. David J. Salazar-Quintero, both members of 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division … were arrested by border patrol personnel on July 3, 2019 for allegedly transporting and conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants,” the 1st Marine Division Press Office wrote in a statement.

In July, 18 US Marines and a sailor were arrested in dramatic fashion for alleged involvement in various illegal activities ranging from human smuggling to drug-related offenses, according to a statement made to CNN from the Naval Criminal Investigative Services.

A US official told CNN at the time that the arrests were related to an incident this summer in which two Marines from Camp Pendleton were charged with transporting undocumented Mexican immigrants to the United States for financial gain.

In early July, Border Patrol agents in Southern California were checking hiding spots and tracking footprints near Interstate 8 when one of the agents saw a black car pull off the highway onto a dirt turnaround, according to a criminal complaint.

Law was driving, and Salazar-Quintero was in the passenger seat, the complaint says. There were three passengers in the back of the car, and they told the agent they were Mexican citizens, had no immigration papers and were not permitted to enter the United States, it says.

The driver and passenger, under questioning, began pointing fingers at each other, the complaint says.

Law told the agent he was a Marine based at Camp Pendleton, and he said that Salazar-Quintero had called him the night of July 2 and asked him if wanted to make $1,000 for picking up an immigrant, the complaint says.

The three immigrants apprehended from the back of Law’s car told Border Patrol agents that they’d made arrangements to be smuggled into the United States and had been told via cell phone to get into Law’s car.

Two of the migrants said they were planning to pay $8,000 to be smuggled into the country, the complaint says. One planned on traveling to Los Angeles, the other to New Jersey.

US-Iran conflict enters new phase as Saudi Arabia helps hit proxies and diplomacy stalls again

WASHINGTON (AP) — The stop-start fighting between the United States and Iran appears to have entered a new phase as Saudi Arabia has publicly joined military escalations against Tehran-backed proxies. At the same time, an already untenable diplomatic effort to end the war has faltered once again as mistrust deepens between the longtime adversaries. Despite several days of relative calm, both sides carried out military strikes in the last 24 hours that once again risk a return to all-out war — and further expansion in the region — while little is clear about what strategy, if any, American or Iranian officials have for a path forward. While President Donald Trump and his allies have spent recent days arguing that Iran is begging to return to the negotiating table, Iran’s deputy foreign minister said Tuesday that his country has made no requests to restart the diplomatic track in more than two weeks. Following a thwarted attack on the U.S. base in Jordan, Trump turned back to threats Wednesday even while sustaining the prospect of continued talks.
Read Next Story