During the week of February 28 to March 6, 2026, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona charged 177 individuals with immigration-related crimes. The charges included 124 cases involving illegal re-entry into the United States and 35 cases of illegal entry. Additionally, there were 17 cases filed against 18 people accused of smuggling undocumented immigrants within Arizona.
Federal law enforcement agencies that referred or supported these cases include U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE-ERO), ICE-Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
One recent case is United States v. Iven Jair Jonathan Monjaraz-Perez, Gabriel Garcia-Lopez, and Alvaro Ojeda-Gomez. According to a criminal complaint filed on March 4, 2026, HSI began investigating a human smuggling organization in Phoenix in 2025. On March 2, HSI agents executed a federal search warrant at an apartment in Phoenix where they found 19 undocumented immigrants and arrested Garcia-Lopez and Ojeda-Gomez as alleged caretakers of the apartment. Both men are Mexican citizens who were unlawfully present in the country.
Agents then searched another apartment linked to the smuggling operation and observed two individuals leaving for a car associated with the scheme. One was Monjarez-Perez, who is alleged to have received money for transporting immigrants within the United States and receiving them at what authorities called a drop house.
“A criminal complaint is a formal accusation of criminal conduct. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,” according to information from prosecutors.
For more details about ongoing enforcement efforts by this office, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/.
