Bastrop, Tx–Following a raid in far southwestern Bastrop County near Dale on Wednesday afternoon, two men were jailed on kidnapping charges in connection with allegations they had been holding seven Central American men in an uncooled trailer house while the immigrants’ families were facing demands for cash payments.
Nabor Rodriguez-Guillen, 20, and Juan Carlos Sanchez-Comacho, 29, were booked into the Bastrop County Jail shortly after 7 p.m. July 8 where they are being held under $700,000 bail each. They were seized during a raid about 4 p.m., along with a 9 mm handgun, on a site near 380 FM 672 close to the Bastrop/Travis County line.
The raid was mounted by the Bastrop County SWAT unit, a similar force from Travis County and officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement service with air support from the Austin Police Department, according to Bastrop County Sheriff Terry Pickering.
The suspects did not resist arrest, the sheriff said. “I think we caught them by surprise,” he said following a July 9 press conference in Bastrop.
The investigation was sparked by a telephone call to investigators about 10 a.m. Wednesday from a nearby resident who said he found a man sleeping in his pickup who claimed as many as 25 immigrants were being held under armed guard by three men in the trailer. The group, including three women, had been held for three or four days without food or water, the man said. The women had been sexually assaulted and the others physically ablused, he reported.
The man was later identified as Bayron Paz, 28, according to the sheriff’s department. Pickering said Paz told investigators he had escaped from the trailer during the night through an opening he found or created in the floor. All the immigrants may be from El Salvador and/or Honduras, said Pickering.
The sheriff said the investigation is far from over. Officials are still seeking the others reported to have been held in the trailer, including the three women, he said. Some may have escaped before authorities arrived and others may have been transported elsewhere by their captors, said Pickering.
So far the two suspects are being held on state criminal charges which could result in prison terms of up to 99 years. Federal charges could also result, said Pickering. He said he expects the Bastrop County Distict Attorney’s Office to be consulting with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Austin about how to proceed with the case.
Those freed in the Wednesday raid are being housed at an Austin shelter, the sheriff said Thursday. In addition to Paz, a press statement from the sheriff’s department identified the others recovered in the raid as Josue Edcarado-Gonazalez, 20; Carlos Antonio Pichinte-Flores, 35; Nelson Antonio Perez-Coreas, 32; Olman Eduardo Sierro-Benavides, 36; Bayron Ronaldo Barrientos-Rosales, 19; and Leonard Murilto-Avila, 46.