In yet another example of a dangerous criminal being released on bond in Harris County, Texas, today we bring you this news, courtesy of Holly Hansen:
A Maryland man arrested in Houston on human smuggling charges Monday has been released on personal bond from the Harris County criminal court system.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Houston Police Department (HPD) arrested a 50-year-old Maryland man and rescued six individuals at the second suspected human smuggling stash “house,” actually an apartment, discovered in Southwest Houston in the past four days.
Officers arrested Jorge Antonio Coello Chavez, a resident of Gaithersburg, Maryland, and charged him with human smuggling and operating a stash house. Also taken into custody were five males from Ecuador and one male from Guatemala who were being held in the apartment.
A motion filed by an assistant district attorney noted that alleged victims told police that there were other alleged smugglers involved, one man and one woman, and that cell phones had been stored in a locked room. One man stated that he had paid to be transported from Ecuador to New York.
Arguing that a higher bond was needed for “the safety of the complainants and the public,” the district attorney requested a bond amount of $50,000, but Magistrate Lionel Castro authorized Coello-Chavez’s release on a personal bond of $5,000.
Coello Chavez is listed as having been born in Honduras, but initial reports indicate he is a legal resident of the United States. Court records state that a consulate was notified regarding the case and that a condition of his bond release is that he must surrender his Honduran passport within 72 hours.
Last week, Houston police responding to a call about a man running down the street in his underwear discovered 29 people held in another stash house in southwest Houston. Federal prosecutors charged a Honduran national, Mauro Dominguez-Maldonado, in that case.
Mary Magness, assistant special agent in charge of HSI Houston said in a released statement that “Houston is one of the nation’s primary hubs for stash houses and the heart of the distribution network for transporting smuggled aliens to the rest of the country.”
“Its close proximity to the border, diverse demographic makeup, and nearby access to major interstate highways make Houston an ideal staging ground.”
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo speaks during an interview in Houston, Texas, U.S., on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019. Houston-area residents should follow stay-at-home guidelines that were discontinued weeks ago to cope with a resurgence in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, Hidalgo said. Photographer: Sharon Steinmannn/Bloomberg via Getty Images