Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested two people Thursday on harboring charges in a case involving allegations of ransom and the use of a machete to scare people in the country illegally into staying in a bedroom.
The investigation into the duo began Nov. 15 after two people from El Salvador were mistakenly dropped off at a woman’s house. They told her they had been held against their will at a stash house and charged a $2,600 ransom for their release, according to a criminal complaint.
Both individuals told HSI special agents that they paid $11,500 in smuggling fees to enter the United States and had been held at several stash houses, including one federal authorities say was operated by Leticia Sosa-Medina, a Mexican citizen born in 1967, and Giovanni Tellez, a U.S. citizen born in 2002.
The citizens of El Salvador said approximately 17 to 18 people were held in that residence, according to the complaint.
Federal authorities said both individuals identified Sosa-Medina as the owner of the residence. She provided them with food and told them not to make any noise and to stay in the bedroom where they were being harbored.
They also identified Tellez as the caretaker of the stash house who patted everyone down for phones and weapons and who was in possession of a machete, according to the complaint.
On Thursday, HSI executed a warrant at the stash house in Peñitas and arrested the suspects.
“Both Sosa-Medina and Tellez were apprehended and transported for interviews,” the complaint said. “Ledgers, hand drawn maps of the Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias, weapons and foreign identification documents from different countries were found within the residence and seized.”
Federal authorities said in the complaint that both suspects admitted to harboring people, with Tellez telling investigators he was paid $100 for each person and that he used the machete to scare the people into staying in the bedroom.
Tellez and Sosa-Medina were scheduled for an initial appearance on the harboring charges Friday morning in McAllen federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker.
