Kilmar Abrego Garcia allegedly called a convicted migrant smuggler and another co-conspirator hundreds of times in a single year while running a human smuggling operation.
Federal prosecutors allege Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant who has become one of the biggest names in the Trump administration’s national deportation agenda, used multiple phones to communicate with co-conspirators while smuggling foreign nationals across the U.S., according to court documents. The Salvadoran national purportedly called Jose Hernandez-Reyes, an illegal migrant previously convicted of alien smuggling, and another co-conspirator more than 500 times in 2022 alone.
Abrego Garcia became the face of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration enforcement agenda when he was deported to his home country of El Salvador earlier this year, despite a prior withholding of removal order that prohibited his repatriation. He was eventually flown back to the U.S. to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, with Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing him of making over 100 trips smuggling illegal migrants.
A spokesperson for his attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The details were submitted in court as the Trump administration says it’s accumulated mounting evidence that Abrego Garcia participated in a years-long conspiracy to smuggle illegal migrants across the southern border while he lived unlawfully in the U.S.
“In this case, the Government intends to offer evidence that the defendant transported illegal aliens as part of a wide-ranging, long running criminal conspiracy designed to turn a profit,” prosecutors stated in court documents. “As the United States has previously described, the defendant committed other criminal acts during the course of this conspiracy.”
The charges stem from a December 2022 traffic stop in which Tennessee Highway Patrol officers suspected Abrego Garcia of human smuggling upon noticing he was driving at least eight passengers across the country with no luggage. Not only was Abrego Garcia driving a vehicle owned by Hernandez-Reyes, but prosecutors say cell phone data indicates he called the convicted human smuggler that very night.
“Call detail records from Verizon show a phone call from the 5996 Cellphone to a cellphone used by Reyes at 8:01 p.m. at the exact time the defendant said he was going to call his boss,” prosecutors stated in court documents. “After the traffic stop the call detail records show that the defendant continued to travel Northeast through Tennessee, Virginia, and Maryland.”
Hernandez-Reyes, a Mexican national who unlawfully entered the U.S., was sentenced on alien smuggling charges in August 2020. Prosecutors allege a contact list seized from him upon his arrest in December 2019 included a number used by Abrego Garcia listed as “Kitmar Chofer,” according to court documents. “Chofer” is the Spanish word for “driver.”
Despite being a suspected MS-13 gang member and alleged wife beater, Democrats went above and beyond in demanding Abrego Garcia be brought to the U.S., with a group of Democratic congressional lawmakers at the time flying down to El Salvador to demand his return. Corporate news outlets have repeatedly referred to Abrego Garcia as a “Maryland man,” despite his illegal status.
Prosecutors, who have long alleged that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gangbanger, allege that co-conspirators in the smuggling operation deemed him the best choice to transport the migrants because they had issues collecting payments from gang members in the past. The organization would deploy Abrego Garcia to collect money from recalcitrant passengers.
A woman identified as “Witness-1” will be testifying in court that Abrego Garcia attempted to recruit her into the smuggling conspiracy and allegedly invited her to join in on smuggling trips, according to court documents. Prosecutors claim he exchanged pornographic messages with Witness-1 and asked her for nudes when she was 15 years old at the time.
The Trump administration previously indicated they wanted Abrego Garcia deported to Liberia by the end of October, but agreement on a new deportation destination has been stymied by his claims that he fears persecution in more than 20 different countries.
Abrego Garcia has denied the human smuggling accusations, chalking up the charges as vindictive prosecution by the Trump administration.
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