Teen Human Trafficker Smuggled Illegal Aliens Through Westchester

TOWN OF CORTLANDT, NY — A teenager who extorted some of the most vulnerable people among us, has admitted to his horrifying crimes in the service of an organized human trafficking network, thanks in large part to law enforcement in the Hudson Valley.

Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced on Tuesday the guilty plea of Mario Elpidio Chavez Millan, a 19-year-old human trafficker working with Mexican "coyotes," for conspiring to transport illegal aliens throughout the U.S. As part of his plea, he also admitted to participating in a kidnapping conspiracy.

"Mario Elpidio Chavez Millan and others like him are an integral cog in the human trafficking machine that preys on people who attempt to enter the United States through its southern border each year," Williams said. "The services that Chavez offers are what make it possible for coyotes, the cartels, and others to smuggle people throughout the country, often times for large fees. And in this case — as in many cases involving human traffickers — Chavez and those working with him sought to extort their victims for even more money. This Office will use every tool available to law enforcement to investigate and prosecute those involved in human trafficking."

According to court documents, on July 10 of last year, the New York State Police in the Town of Cortlandt received a report from a person that their relative had entered the country illegally with the assistance of "coyotes" and was being transported by a man in the U.S. who working with the coyotes, who was later identified as Chavez. The whistleblower also told state police that Chavez had told the relative being transported that he was not going to release them unless they or their family paid $1,000 in addition to the money that person being transported had already paid to the coyotes.

That evening, state police conducted a traffic stop of Chavez’s vehicle in the Town of Cortlandt, and found five people in the vehicle, in addition to Chavez. After the passengers, including the relative of the individual who contacted the NYSP, were brought to the state police barracks, each reported that they had illegally entered the U.S. and that they were being driven by Chavez from in or near New Mexico to other states throughout the country. Several of the passengers said that Chavez threatened them during the drive, telling them that they could not leave without paying him an additional $1,000 and that Chavez told them he had previously killed someone for running away without paying.

Chavez, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to transport aliens throughout the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on August 7.

Williams praised the investigative work of the FBI’s Hudson Valley Resident Agency and Safe Streets Task Force and the New York State Police.