Prosecutors in the District of Arizona filed federal charges against a Phoenix-area business owner for employing illegal aliens. The owner, an illegal alien from Mexico, was also charged with being an alien in possession of a firearm.
ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested 42-year-old Blademir Angulo Audeves, a Mexican national illegally present in the United States, on July 8. Prosecutors charged the man with Harboring of an Illegal Alien, Knowingly Employing Unauthorized Aliens, Improper Entry by an Alien, and Alien in Possession of a Firearm.
HSI agents began investigating Angulo in March based on allegations that he was employing illegal aliens without work authorizations at his chain of Taqueria El Taco Loko restaurants and trucks in the Phoenix area. Agents determined at least 12 illegal aliens were working in the various business locations, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona. Angulo allegedly housed illegal aliens in two of his Phoenix-area homes.
Agents executed a warrant at Angulo’s residences and business locations on July 8 and took the man into custody. While executing search warrants at two of Angulo’s residences, the agents reportedly encountered “several Mexican citizens without legal permission to be in the United States. The agents also arrested Angulo.
Prosecutors say agents found three firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition inside the home in a master bedroom closet.
Immigration records show that Angulo entered the U.S. illegally in 2011, prosecutors stated. He eventually left the United States at the Nogales port of entry under voluntary departure orders issued in May 2021. The Mexican national re-entered the United States illegally at an unknown date and location, officials stated.
Under federal law, illegal aliens are not authorized to purchase or possess firearms and ammunition.
During workplace enforcement operations at Angulo’s restaurants, agents found more Mexican nationals who were illegally present in the U.S. Prosecutors said that two of the arrested illegal aliens, Christian Sagaste-Garcia and Jose Luis Ambriz-Cortes, were arrested and charged with unlawful re-entry after removal, a federal felony. “Sagaste-Garcia and Ambriz-Cortez were previously removed from the United States in October 2024 and February 2013, respectively,” prosecutors stated.
According to court paperwork obtained by AZFamily.com, employees told HSI agents that Angulo paid human smugglers up to $12,000 per person to bring the illegal aliens into the U.S. They said he expected them to work for him to repay the smuggling fees. Angulo reportedly denied these allegations.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran and serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.
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