Suspected Alien Smuggler And Four Others Indicted

BATON ROUGE, LA - United States Attorney Walt Green announced today that a federal grand jury has returned five (5) indictments arising from an investigation into the transportation of illegal aliens through the Middle District of Louisiana.

Raul Vega, age 60, of Homestead, Florida, was charged in a criminal complaint filed on December 11, 2014, with transporting illegal aliens within the United States for commercial or private financial gain.  On December 17, 2014, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Vega with the same offense.  According to the indictment, on December 10, 2014, the defendant was driving a vehicle on Interstate 12 in Baton Rouge containing a total of ten (10) illegal aliens, including four (4) individuals who allegedly had previously been deported from the United States.  Those four individuals – David Raymundo-Matom, Antonio Pedro-Lorenzo, Jose Ramirez-Arroyo, and Gabriel Salgado-Lozano – were also indicted by the grand jury on December 17, and each stands charged with illegal re-entry into the U.S. by a previously-deported alien.

This matter is being investigated by the Baton Rouge offices of the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).  This matter is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica M.P. Thornhill.

NOTE: An indictment is an accusation by the Grand Jury.  The defendants are presumed innocent until and unless adjudicated guilty at trial or through a guilty plea.