Opinion ID: 805819
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Evidence Pertaining to Garcia-Duarte

Text: Aviles testified that a man named El Guero put him in touch with GarciaDuarte and Leodegardo. On three occasions, Garcia-Duarte personally sent Aviles on alien-smuggling missions. Garcia-Duarte gave Aviles money to purchase a truck and the contact numbers for scouts, and he was waiting at the stash house when Aviles arrived with the aliens.3 Torres stated that he worked for various members of the conspiracy by providing vehicles and altering existing vehicles so that they were more suitable for smuggling aliens. Torres testified that he observed Garcia-Duarte and Leodegardo having discussions together at the garage where Torres worked and at Leodegardo’s apartment, where Garcia-Duarte and Leodegardo talked about obtaining vehicles, recruiting drivers, and determining which stash houses to use. Anna Martinez (“Martinez”) next testified that she had a relationship with Garcia-Duarte and gave him access to her house, which Leodegardo later used as a stash house. Martinez believed that Garcia-Duarte was looking for renters for the house, and he persuaded her to leave the utilities on in the house. He was the only one who had access to it. When Martinez went by the house at one point, it was filthy, and Leodegardo told her that she could not enter certain parts of the house. Approximately one week later, Immigrations Customs and Enforcement (“ICE”) officers raided the house, where they found five illegal aliens, two firearms, and a ledger that showed names, phone numbers, and currency numbers. The house’s exits had been boarded up and were padlocked so that no one could escape from the inside. Finally, as noted above, there was circumstantial evidence indicating that Garcia-Duarte had sent payments to Rosalinda and Gilberto through Western 3 A stash house is a house used to hold the illegal aliens until the smugglers received payment from their families. 5 Case: 10-50970 Document: 00511942697 Page: 6 Date Filed: 08/02/2012 No. 10-50970 Union for their work as scouts, and the Western Union offices from which the money was transmitted were all located near Garcia-Duarte’s apartment in Houston.