Cartel scout said he helped smuggle 1,000 undocumented immigrants into US last year
Border Patrol agents found Edgar Armanda Vargas-de la Rocha dressed in camouflage and wielding binoculars when they took him into custody in the mountains south of metropolitan Phoenix. Before long, he’d told them he was a scout for a Mexican cartel.
In the past year alone, Vargas-de la Rocha said he’d helped smuggle about 1,000 undocumented immigrants into the country, according to court records.
The Feb. 24 arrest near Maricopa, Arizona, took place as authorities looked into why federal equipment in the South Maricopa Mountains had gone offline – and it comes as President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up a border crackdown on illegal immigration, among the linchpins of his campaign platform and a focus of his joint address to Congress.
“Taking away the eyes and ears of the smugglers makes it harder to move people and contraband, making it safer for agents and communities on both sides of the international border,” Sean McGoffin, chief patrol agent for U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Tucson sector, said in a statement.
Authorities in Arizona found communication devices in Vargas-de la Rocha’s backpack nearby. According to the documents, he said he was in the country illegally, earning about $10,000 U.S. for reports about border agents’ locations and activity to members of the Los Memos cartel, part of the Sinaloa cartel.
His duties continued even after Trump took office, records indicated, as Vargas-de la Rocha told officials he more recently “successfully helped illegally smuggle six groups” from the border to Interstate 8, precipitating their transport to Phoenix.
Vargas-de la Rocha signed a plea agreement on a federal felony conspiracy-for-financial-gain charge last week and faces up to 10 years in prison. His change of plea hearing is scheduled Thursday at Phoenix’s federal courthouse.
According to the Border Patrol, Vargas-de la Rocha was among three additional suspected scouts and a foot guide arrested within a two-day period last month, all thought to be linked to the Los Memos cartel.
In addition to being charged with illegal entry into the U.S., three of the five will face criminal charges for human smuggling and conspiracy, the agency said.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office designating the Sinaloa cartel a foreign terrorist organization.