US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control have announced sanctions on Jumilca Sandivel Hernandez Perez, the chief of the Lopez Human Smuggling Organization. Hernandez Perez has been linked to the 2019 deaths of nine American citizens in Sonora, Mexico, and has worked with the La Linea cartel to coordinate smuggling operations.
According to ICE, the Lopez Human Transporting Organization, based in Guatemala, is responsible for transporting thousands of migrants from Guatemala to the United States via Mexico. ICE Homeland Security Investigations El Paso special agents, with the support of several law enforcement partners, launched an operation against the organization in 2023, resulting in indictments and arrests in three states. On July 25, 2024, the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico announced further indictments against the Lopez HSO and a La Linea cartel member implicated in human smuggling activities.
La Linea, often known as the Juarez Cartel, was named by the Treasury’s counternarcotics authorities in 2021. “ICE is committed to identifying, disrupting, and dismantling transnational criminal organizations that exploit vulnerable individuals and jeopardize border security,” stated ICE HSI acting Executive Associate Director Robert Hammer. The Lopez HSO primarily trafficked illegal aliens into New Mexico, Arizona, and California, with activities expanding to Texas and other states.
The organization took advantage of the US financial system, employing banks to assist payments for smuggling operations. Between September 2020 and 2023, the Lopez HSO is estimated to have produced between $104 million and $416 million in criminal revenues, charging smuggled individuals between $13,000 and $16,000 apiece.
These sanctions are the result of a collaborative effort between the ICE HSI El Paso Field Office, the ICE HSI Human Smuggling Unit, OFAC, the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico, and US Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center.
