The Trump Administration’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit has arrested the owner of a Phoenix-based taco restaurant for employing — and allegedly smuggling — illegal aliens.
Blademir Angulo Audeves, a 42-year-old illegal alien himself, was arrested Tuesday and hit with multiple federal charges, including harboring illegal aliens, employing unauthorized workers, and illegal possession of firearms, as part of Operation Take Back America, Arizona’s Family reported.
Angulo, who runs the popular Taqueria El Taco Loko on 67th Avenue and Indian School Road — along with a mobile taco trailer and taco bus — was found to have housed and employed at least 12 illegal aliens at his properties in Laveen and Maricopa.
Federal agents raided Angulo’s homes and businesses and found three firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and a network of foreign nationals reportedly smuggled into the country and working under-the-table.
Several of the workers told federal agents that Angulo personally arranged or financed their illegal entry, charging them up to $12,000 per person to be paid off through cash or indentured labor.
Despite being previously deported in 2021, Angulo admitted he illegally re-entered the U.S. just months later. Prosecutors say he paid workers in cash and checks to dodge employment verification laws.
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Blademir Angulo Audeves, 42, of Mexico, was arrested on July 8, and charged by criminal complaint for Harboring of an Illegal Alien, Knowingly Employing Unauthorized Aliens, Improper Entry by an Alien, and Alien in Possession of a Firearm. Angulo will have his initial appearance in federal court today.
According to the complaint filed in this case, in March 2025, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) began investigating allegations that Angulo was employing illegal aliens without work authorization at his taco restaurants in the Phoenix area. Through the investigation, HSI identified at least 12 illegal aliens working for Angulo, some of whom were living at Angulo’s home in Laveen, Arizona or at a second residence on 16th Avenue.
On July 8, HSI executed federal search warrants on Angulo’s residence and restaurant locations, as well as the 16th Avenue residence. Inside the two residences, agents encountered several Mexican citizens without legal permission to be in the United States. Agents also arrested Angulo without incident.
At Angulo’s residence, agents found three firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the master bedroom closet. According to immigration records, Angulo, a Mexican national, was encountered by authorities in 2011 while illegally present in the United States, and eventually left the country via Nogales, Arizona pursuant to a voluntary departure in May 2021. When he was arrested on July 8, Angulo did not have legal permission to be in the United States and was therefore prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.
At Angulo’s taco restaurant locations, HSI agents also found Mexican citizens without legal permission to be present or employed in the United States legally.
Two of the illegal aliens that HSI encountered while executing the warrants as part of this operation, Christian Sagaste-Garcia and Jose Luis Ambriz-Cortes, were also arrested and separately charged with Re-entry of a Removed Alien. Sagaste-Garcia and Ambriz-Cortez were previously removed from the United States in October 2024 and February 2013, respectively.
These cases are part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).
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