DOJ Charges 12 Individuals in Conspiracy to Monopolize Transmigrante Forwarding Industry
DOJ unsealed an indictment on Dec. 6 charging 12 individuals in a conspiracy to "monopolize the transmigrante forwarding industry in the Los Indios, Texas, border region," it announced. The 12 are accused of conspiring to fix prices, "allocate the market for transmigrante services" and monopolize this market in violation of sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.
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Transmigrantes ship used vehicles and other goods from the U.S. via Mexico to be sold in Central America. The transmigrante forwarding industry provides services to these importers by helping with customs paperwork for the export of vehicles to Mexico. DOJ alleged that players in this market installed price-fixing agreements and created a centralized entity, dubbed "The Pool," to collect and divide revenues among the defendants. Those who refused to charge the fixed prices, pay into the pool or pay an extortion tax were the subject of "threats, intimidation and acts of violence against themselves and their families, employees, associates and businesses," DOJ alleged.
The defendants accused of violating the Sherman Act are Carlos Martinez of Mission, Texas; Antonio Medina, Rigoberto Brown and Miguel Caballero Aupart, all of Brownsville, Texas; Pedro Calvillo Hernandez of Tamaulipas, Mexico; Roberto Garcia Villareal of San Benito, Texas; Sandra Guerra Medina of Rancho Viejo, Texas; and Mireya Miranda of La Feria, Texas.
In addition, Martinez, Medina, Calvillo and Garcia, along with Diego Ceballos-Soto of Matamoros, Mexico, and Carlos Yzaguirre of Mission, Texas, were charged with one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by extortion. Martinez, Ceballos-Soto and Yzaguirre were also charged with one count of interference in commerce by extortion, for allegedly making one agency owner pay over $80,000 for operating outside the pool and failing to pay the extortion tax. Martinez, Medina, Calvillo, Ceballos-Soto and Yzaguirre, along with Juan Ramirez Avila and Jose Tapia Fernandez, both of Brownsville, were charged with money laundering conspiracy and substantive counts of money laundering related to the underlying scheme.
“The indictment charges that defendants monopolized an industry through horrific violence and threats of violence,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said. “The department will use all the tools at its disposal -- including Section 2 of the Sherman Act -- to target anticompetitive conduct that undermines our country’s economic vitality and freedom.”