A report to the New York Police Department about three family members being smuggled into the country, and who were held against their will in Hidalgo County, resulted in allegations that an Edinburg man was forcing the trio to babysit, clean, work at a fireworks stand and sell drugs to work off their debts.
After a two-day investigation following the report, agents with Homeland Security Investigations arrested Eduardo Javier Gomez, a U.S. citizen born in 1991, and charged him with harboring people in the country illegally.
That agency received the report from the NYPD after officers there forwarded the information through several agencies before it landed in HSI’s office.
A criminal complaint says agents then contacted the reporting party, who was the sister of one of the people being held in Edinburg, and she told authorities that her family had paid $4,500 apiece for the trio to be smuggled.
Once in the U.S., a smuggler contacted the family and requested an additional $12,000 to smuggle the people to Houston: $6,000 upfront and $6,000 upon arrival, according to the complaint.
They were instead transferred to Gomez, who contacted the family asking for more money, which a family member refused, HSI stated.
Gomez then told the family that all three would have to work to pay off their smuggling fees, according to the complaint.
Federal authorities also allege that Gomez took the trio’s cellphones and limited their communication while directing them to tell their family that they were doing fine during the two to three minutes he allowed them to speak with them.
Two of the people being held, however, spoke indigenous dialects in addition to Spanish and were able to tell their family that one of them was working as a babysitter and cleaning Gomez’s house, while two others were being forced to work at a fireworks stand, according to the complaint.
One of the people forced to work at the fireworks stand was also forced to sit inside a vehicle outside an Edinburg bar called Los Amigos and sell drugs, federal authorities said.
The complaint also details how all three were never alone and how Gomez isolated them from each other.
Following up on the information, HSI agents last Thursday conducted surveillance on Gomez’s Edinburg residence and observed an SUV occupied by two women and three children leave and drive to Mission, according to the complaint.
“ After approximately two hours, the two adult females and three children re-entered the vehicle and drove away from the residence,” the complaint read.
After they left, a Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office deputy pulled the vehicle over for speeding and for failing to signal 100 feet prior to turning.
The deputy requested an immigration check and the HSI special agents determined that one of the women was in the country illegally, and that the other woman was Gomez’s wife.
The complaint says the woman in the car was one of the people being held against their will.
She spoke to agents and said she had entered the U.S. approximately two weeks prior with two of her cousins before being held by Gomez, according to the complaint.
Federal authorities said she detailed how all three were forced to work, and that she saw Gomez preparing a white powdery substance she believed was cocaine by placing it into small bags her cousin was forced to sell.
She also said Gomez frequently displayed a firearm in front of them and that he also carried a stun gun and handcuffs, according to the complaint.
At around 1:45 a.m. Friday, Gomez went to the Mission Police Department looking for his family and was taken into custody after refusing to be interviewed by HSI agents, the charging document further stated .
The same day, at about 8 a.m., HSI went to the Edinburg residence and gained consent to search, and discovered the two remaining family members, according to the complaint.
Gomez made a first appearance in front of a federal magistrate judge Monday morning and is temporarily being held without bond pending detention and probable cause hearings scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, court records indicate.
