Human smuggling organizations, also known as “coyotes,” are well organized and exceptionally violent.  Their human “cargo” are often victimized, held for ransom or worse.  As an example, 20 undocumented immigrants were taken by six smugglers to a Phoenix “drop house” several months ago.  Soon after arriving, the immigrants were informed that the price for bringing them into Arizona would be twice as high as they had been told.

When one member of the group objected, the coyotes walked him into another room and shot him to death.

Human smuggling is not just exceptionally violent, it is highly profitable.  Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wire transferred into Arizona to pay for smuggling human beings.  In an effort to cut down on coyote activities, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office over the past four years has used “sweeping” warrants to screen the wire transfers of cash that pay the coyotes for smuggling people into Arizona and intercept the most suspicious.

Intercepting their wire transfers has proven an effective tool in fighting coyotes.  During the past four years, my Office has seized more than $17 million in wire payments and arrested more than 100 smugglers.  Every effort has been made to focus the warrants on activity known to be consistent with human smuggling based on a variety of identifying factors.  Any legitimate cash transfers withheld in the process are promptly returned, usually within 24 hours.  On investigation, less than 10 percent of intercepted transfers over the past four years have turned out to be legitimate. 

Our success in seizing smuggling payments sent to Arizona has reduced the volume of wire transfers into Arizona dramatically.  The coyote organization that committed the Phoenix drop house murder, like many others, had begun to route its wire transfer payments to Sonora in northern Mexico. 

In response to this change in coyote tactics, we targeted 26 locations on the Mexican side of the border.  Western Union, the nation's dominant wire transfer company, went to court to stop our efforts.  A recent court ruling said we could not seize funds in Sonora.  I will soon appeal that decision.

Although the warrant that covered payments sent to Sonora was in operation for only three days, and seizures during those three days and Western Union’s publicity warned some of the coyotes about our warrants, we still stopped 277 suspect payments totaling $278,000. 

Our seizure warrants are similar to court-ordered wiretaps.  Our warrants do temporarily stop some legitimate transfers, in the same way wiretaps sometimes record non-criminal conversations.  Courts have authorized both seizure warrants and wiretaps when presented with evidence of reasonable probability of criminal activity and when every effort is made to minimize the impact on innocent people.  That’s exactly what my Office has done over the past four years.

With Arizona the nation's leading gateway for human trafficking, I will continue to use all legal means available to deter and prosecute human smugglers.  Seizure warrants have proven to be a highly effective weapon in the fight against smuggling organizations.  Since wire transfers are still the coyotes’ payment method of choice, I will seek to convince the appeals court that our sweeping warrants are within the law.  Equally important would be to convince Western Union and other money transmitters to stop doing business with these brutal criminals.

Terry Goddard