Reports indicate that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, associated with the MS-13 gang, was allegedly functioning as a “taxi service” for convicted human smugglers, moving illegal immigrants from Texas to various destinations across the United States.
Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, who was found guilty of immigrant trafficking in 2020, mentioned to federal agents that he ran a smuggling operation based in Baltimore. He claimed to have hired Abrego Garcia on “multiple occasions” to facilitate crossings at the border.
Last month, the Justice Department dispatched federal agents to a prison in Talladega, Alabama to inquire about both Hernandez Reyes and Abrego Garcia.
At a traffic stop in Tennessee in 2022, Abrego Garcia, 29, was driving a vehicle registered to Hernandez Reyes, who was under suspicion for human trafficking. During the stop for speeding, officers discovered eight passengers in the vehicle but noted the absence of any luggage.
Abrego Garcia explained to the officers that he was transporting this group in his boss’s car for construction work in Maryland. Ultimately, he was allowed to leave despite having an expired license.
According to a source familiar with the investigation, Hernandez Reyes and Abrego Garcia met around 2015 while Hernandez Reyes was operating his illegal immigrant “taxi service.” However, it remains uncertain when exactly Abrego Garcia was contracted by Hernandez Reyes for these border transports.
Reports suggest that federal agents have extended offers of temporary immunity to converse with convicted felons.
Following his deportation in March by the Trump administration, referencing 18th-century alien enemy laws, Abrego Garcia was sent to a high-security prison in El Salvador but later moved to a lower-security facility. Federal officials acknowledged administrative errors in his deportation but maintained that they had no authority to return him to the U.S.
The Supreme Court mandated that the White House facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
Despite this, the Trump administration justified the deportation, citing his alleged involvement with the “Western faction” of MS-13 and claiming a link between his wife’s trafficking and earlier allegations of abuse.
Abrego Garcia is said to have first entered the United States illegally in 2011. In 2019, an immigration judge issued an order to shield him from deportation.
