In the Los Angeles area, a major human smuggling kingpin has pleaded guilty to illegally smuggling around 20,000 people into the United States, and here’s the kicker: He’s an illegal alien himself. Because of course he is.
An undocumented immigrant who lived in Los Angeles pleaded guilty Friday to leading what authorities say was one of the largest human smuggling operations in the United States.
Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, 52, pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy, transporting and harboring undocumented immigrants, and hostage taking, the Department of Justice announced. He has been in federal custody since February 2025.
Prosecutors say Renoj-Matul, who went by the nicknames “Turko,” “El Jefe,” “Patron” and “El Gallo,” collected payments of $15,000 to $18,000 to smuggle immigrants from Guatemala into the United States through Mexico using a network of drivers and safe houses.
One correction: Renjo-Matul is not an “undocumented immigrant.” He is an illegal alien. He is in the United States illegally. He broke our immigration laws by coming here, and he broke them by smuggling in other illegal aliens. Let’s just dispense with the “undocumented immigrant” horse squeeze right up front, shall we?
Here’s how his operation worked:
“After an illegal alien’s smuggling fee was paid, the illegal alien was transported by co-conspirators to another destination within the United States,” the DOJ said. “If an illegal alien’s smuggling fees were not paid, Renoj-Matul and other co-conspirators would hold that illegal alien against their will at the Westlake house until their fee was paid.”
In his plea agreement, Renoj-Matul admitted to smuggling about 20,000 people into the U.S. from 2019 through July 2024, sending them to destinations including Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
He wasn’t above threats of murder, either:
In one case, after a third party reneged on paying the smuggling fee, Renoj-Matul and his associates called the immigrant’s mother and warned her that her daughter “would come home in a box” if the money wasn’t sent, according to the DOJ. The victim was held hostage at the Westlake house for two months.
Renoj-Matul has pleaded guilty and faces a possible life sentence.
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In the case of a goblin like this, it’s tempting to just repatriate them and be done with it, rather than housing them behind bars at the taxpayer’s expense. But imprisonment, assuming that Renoj-Matul doesn’t come before an invertebrate judge who slaps his wrist and sets him loose, is nevertheless the better option. If we repatriate him, likely, he’ll just try to find a way back into the United States and start his lucrative operation up somewhere else; this kind of jaguar just doesn’t change his spots. The best thing we can do is cage him, and his co-conspirators as well, at least one of whom, a driver, was responsible for an accident that killed seven people.
The border is closed now, and the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration is still happening. But the case of Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul tells us, very plainly, that there’s a lot of work yet to be done.
Need another reason to vote in the midterms? Here you are, reason # 6,928,932.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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