Posted
By CotoBlogzz
Rancho
Santa Margarita, CA - Noe Aranda-Soto,
aka Diablo a former fugitive who was illegally residing in Houston has entered
a guilty plea today, admitting that he engaged in an alien smuggling conspiracy
that resulted in two deaths and kidnapped two women, one of whom was killed,
according to announcement by Assistant
Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal
Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas
made the announcement.
Noe
Aranda-Soto, aka Diablo, 36, of San Carlos, Michoacan, Mexico, pleaded guilty
to kidnapping resulting in death, use of a firearm during and in relation to a
crime of violence resulting in death and conspiracy to transport aliens for
private financial gain resulting in death. U.S. District Judge John D.
Rainey of the Southern District of Texas accepted the guilty plea.
In his
plea agreement, Aranda-Soto admitted that from 2010 until his arrest in 2012,
he led an alien-smuggling and hostage-taking organization that transported
aliens from areas near the south-Texas checkpoints to local stash houses in
Houston and to points north. On Aug. 1, 2010, his brother was driving a
vehicle loaded with illegal aliens when it rolled over near Victoria, Texas.
One victim died as a result of the accident, while another victim who had been
left behind in the brush died of exposure and dehydration. A third victim
was in a coma for nearly a year and now suffers from permanent injuries,
according to the plea.
Law
enforcement stopped Aranda-Soto a few days later, but he fled. Still a
fugitive on the 2010 charges, Aranda-Soto admitted he returned to Houston in
2012 and began to hold aliens hostage in Houston-area stash houses. After
law enforcement rescued a group of aliens being held hostage and arrested
several of Aranda-Soto’s employees from one of the locations in October 2012,
Aranda-Soto planned to escape from Houston with two female employees.
According
to the plea agreement, while on Interstate 10 near Katy, Texas, Aranda-Soto
became agitated and shot both the driver and the other female passenger
multiple times. The injured driver jumped from the moving car and
survived. Aranda-Soto then purposefully drove the car erratically,
causing the other woman to be ejected from the moving vehicle onto the highway
where she was subsequently run over by multiple other vehicles and killed,
according to admissions in the plea agreement.
Law
enforcement arrested Aranda-Soto a week later at yet another stash house, which
was full of illegal aliens whom Aranda-Soto and his co-conspirators were
holding hostage.
With
Aranda-Soto’s plea, all of those charged in relation to the 2010 and 2012
criminal activity have now been convicted.
