Feds charge ‘El Jefe,’ accused leader of human smuggling network behind deadly crash
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Federal authorities in Los Angeles have arrested and charged two alleged leaders of a criminal organization said to have smuggled a little more than 20,000 undocumented immigrants from Guatemala to the U.S. over five years — including seven who died in a car crash in 2023.
Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, a.k.a. “El Jefe” and “Turko,” and Cristobal Mejia-Chaj were arrested last week and have pleaded not guilty to a slew of charges related to smuggling migrants across the U.S border. A federal judge ordered the men, who are in the country illegally, jailed without bond.
The men face up to life in prison and the possibility of the death penalty, acting U.S. Atty. Joseph T. McNally said during a news conference Monday announcing the charges.
Attorneys for Renoj-Matul and Mejia-Chaj did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The offenses alleged in the indictment show a criminal group that acted with callous disregard for our nation’s immigration laws and no regard for the immigrants that they smuggled,” McNally said.
The human smuggling case, McNally said, was part of a weeklong series of events “focused on revitalizing existing immigration enforcement activities.” The U.S. attorney’s office in L.A. also announced Monday that, in recent weeks, charges have been filed against 126 people accused of illegally reentering the country after being removed.
Many of those charged had been convicted of felony offenses before their removal from the U.S., offenses that include manslaughter and crimes against children, according to federal authorities. The charges come amid President Trump’s deluge of orders and policy changes intended to toughen immigration laws and facilitate deportations.
U.S. Border Patrol provided around 50 agents for operations Friday linked to the human smuggling case.
The arrests Friday prompted fears of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement “raid” in Los Angeles. Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, an ICE spokeswoman, previously said there was an “ongoing investigation on human smuggling.”
According to an indictment filed last week, the “Renoj-Matul transnational criminal organization” operated for at least a dozen years and specialized in transporting migrants from Guatemala. Federal authorities called it one of the largest human smuggling organizations in the country.
Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, who is suspected of being a lieutenant in the organization and a supervisor of a team of drivers, and Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj, who is suspected of being a driver, have also been charged, according to the indictment.
While search warrants were being carried out Friday, Obispo-Hernandez allegedly called a law enforcement agent and threatened to kill that agent and his family members “by cutting off their heads,” McNally said. Obispo-Hernandez, who remains a fugitive, has also been charged with threatening a federal task force officer.
“Those actions demonstrate just how violent this organization is,” McNally said.
Maksim Zaitsev, 35, of Costa Mesa allegedly bit a deportation officer on the left pinky finger, breaking skin, drawing blood and breaking the finger.
Obispo-Hernandez is believed to be in Guatemala, federal authorities said. Paxtor-Oxlaj has been in custody in Oklahoma since Nov. 21, 2023, when he was suspected of involvement in a car crash that killed seven people he was transporting to Los Angeles, including three minors, according to the indictment. One of those killed was a 4-year-old, according to McNally.
The organization came on the radar in 2021, when Border Patrol agents from the Indio station traveling on Interstate 10 noticed Guatemalan undocumented immigrants being transported west from points in New Mexico and Arizona, said Gregory K. Bovino, chief patrol agent of Border Patrol’s El Centro sector.
“One of the most complex far-ranging, far-reaching smuggling organizations is now out of business,” Bovino said. “Border security is created. It doesn’t just happen.”
Renoj-Matul allegedly worked with associates in Guatemala who solicited immigrants to come to the U.S., charging between $15,000 and $18,000 for each one. Lieutenants within the Renoj-Matul organization led smuggling cells with teams of drivers and operators of stash houses, according to the indictment.
Mejia-Chaj, described as Renoj-Matul’s “right-hand man,” allegedly operated a stash house on James M. Wood Boulevard in the Westlake area, where people smuggled by the organization were brought and held. After the smuggling fee was paid, the migrants were transported elsewhere in the country, according to the indictment. If the fee was not paid, they would be held against their will, the indictment alleges.
Even after the fatal car collision in Elk City in 2023, which Paxtor-Oxlaj is accused of causing, the smuggling continued, according to the indictment. In a 2024 case, an undocumented immigrant, referred to only by her initials M.M.A., was alleged to have been held against her will in the stash house for three months when the smuggling fee of $15,000 went unpaid.
Federal law enforcement agents are planning to carry out a “large scale” immigration enforcement action in the Los Angeles area before the end of February, according to an internal government document reviewed by The Times.
According to the indictment, after a third party reneged on paying M.M.A.’s smuggling fees, Renoj-Matul and others in Guatemala called the woman’s mother and threatened to harm the daughter, including by warning that she “would come home in a box” if the fees weren’t paid.
On Aug. 7, an unindicted co-conspirator called M.M.A.’s mother in Guatemala, blaming her for a law enforcement search of the Wood Boulevard house the month before. According to the indictment, in December, three unidentified people in Guatemala traveled to M.M.A.’s mother’s home and demanded payment, threatening her with firearms.
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