Word: avianeda
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...detectives headed to the house to make arrests, something frighteningly unusual happened. Instead of scattering like the desert animals that migrant smugglers are named for--coyotes--henchmen working for Avianeda and Andrade fired at the cops with automatic weapons. "We've never faced that kind of resistance from coyotes," says the Minatitlan detective commander, Simitrio Rodriguez. "They're usually not even armed." None of the police were hurt. When the gunfight was over, Avianeda, 39, and four others were under arrest. Andrade, 28, had fled, and is still at large...
With their emphasis on volume (the Avianeda-Andrade ring, say police, can smuggle as many as 500 migrants on a good day), the smuggling lords have helped increase the number of indocumentados entering the U.S. More than 3.5 million made it last year, compared with about 2.5 million a year for most of the '90s, according to Massey's estimates. The larger numbers mean that when things go wrong, more migrants are left to die on Texas highways and in Arizona deserts. Gonzalo, 19, a Guatemalan, barely escaped that destiny. "Last year I paid a coyote organization...
...investigators say, he returned home to join his father and brother as a smuggler. But he had bigger plans than his kin. He had learned in his brief narco days how to intimidate competition, says Rodriguez, who adds that Andrade has an "impulsive, psychotic and violent profile." Avianeda and Andrade are charged with the murders of three rivals. Avianeda has pleaded not guilty to the smuggling and homicide charges...
With a more open field, says Rodriguez, Avianeda and Andrade were able to build what local police call the Uxpanapa organization, named for an isthmus mountain valley in Mexico. The outfit specializes in ushering illegal Central American migrants through Mexico. In a few short years, say investigators, the pair earned enough to fund not only a gun arsenal but also kingpin lifestyles that included Avianeda's ranch and the slick cowboy clothes and motorcycles Andrade loves. Andrade, say police, likes to remind associates that because the poor Central Americans he smuggles are nacos, or hillbillies, he has to flaunt...
Rodriguez says he is certain that some of the migrants who died in the Victoria case, the worst smuggling tragedy in U.S. history, were ferried to the border by the Avianeda-Andrade ring. Federal prosecutors have charged Karla Chavez, 25, a Honduran, with being the "general" responsible for cramming more than 70 illegal migrants into the trailer. She pleaded not guilty...