A federal agent shared new details about the human smuggling allegations against Kilmar Abrego Garcia during his detention hearing June 13.
He is charged withconspiracy to transport aliens and unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens. He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment shortly after 10 a.m. June 13.
Nearly all of the accusations came from co-conspirators and other witnesses who have cooperated with the government. Defense attorneys challenged the cooperators’ testimony because they stood to gain in their ongoing immigration or criminal cases.
“This house of cards is built on the testimony of unverified cooperators,” Federal Public Defender Dumaka Shabazz said in the government’s argument that afternoon. Shabazz argued their evidence should be given “zero weight.”
Here are some of the new allegations the federal agent shared from his investigation into Abrego Garcia’s case.
- Homeland Security Investigations special agent Peter Joseph did not begin investigating the 2022 traffic stop in Cookeville that is central to the charges until April 28, 2025. That was three weeks before a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Abrego Garica.
- Joseph said people in Central and South America paid $8,000 to enter the U.S. illegally through the alleged human smuggling operation. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is alleged to have picked up people in Texas and driven them around the country, received between $1,000-1,400 per trip and made between 1-2 trips per week, according to a co-conspirator, Joseph said.
- The car Abrego Garcia was driving during at the time of the 2022 traffic stop was owned by Jose Hernandez-Reyes, according to Joseph. Hernandez-Reyes has been convicted of alien smuggling.
- Agents are still investigating but have determined six of then nine people in the car were in the U.S. illegally and had arrived from Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador, Joseph said. Two of those people had been apprehended and returned to Mexico on Nov. 6, 2022, just days before Joseph alleges they reentered the country illegally.
- One of the people in the car was 15 years old at the time of the stop, according to information they reported to the state troopers that night.
- After Joseph mentioned Abrego Garcia was stopped on Interstate 81 in Virginia, the USA Today Network has learned of two times he had been stopped there, neither of which were widely reported. Court records show Abrego Garcia was pulled over in April 2015 in Virginia. He was issued a $67 fine for a High Occupancy Vehicle violation and charged with a misdemeanor for driving without a license. That charge was dismissed.
- In addition to the 2015 stop, Matthew Demlein, public relations coordinator for the Virginia State Police, said Abrego Garcia was cited in 2021. He was cited for speeding and driving on an expired license.Both were misdemeanors, Demlein said. He paid a $144 fine and $79 court fee, and the driving without a license charge was dismissed, court records show.
- Several of the five witnesses who cooperated with the government in building its case either are seeking to receive either a withholding of removal on a pending deportation case or favorable treatment in a criminal case, prosecutors admitted.
- A co-conspirator said about 30% of the alleged smuggling business’s customers were gang members.
Nick Penzenstadler contributed to this story.
Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas atemealins@tennessean.com.
