KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Mexican national is facing charges for transporting five people in the country illegally last week on Interstate 70 east of Kansas City, Missouri.
Court documents filed Saturday in the U.S. District Court, District of Missouri, reveal a coordinated multi-state effort involving Homeland Security Investigation agents in at least two areas of responsibility to track the group to Missouri.
Last Thursday, agents in the HSI Casa Grande, Arizona, region notified HSI agents in Kansas City of a suspect who was transporting people illegally in the United States in a Honda Pilot.
Court documents indicate HSI agents used automated license plate readers along roadways to track the group to the Midwest, where HSI agents notified the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Missouri State Highway Patrol to be on the lookout for the vehicle.
Around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22, troopers spotted the vehicle on eastbound I-70 near Mayview, Missouri. The driver, identified as Lisandro Garcia Ramirez, 22, admitted to troopers that he and five others in the car were in the country illegally.
Ramirez allegedly told troopers that he had been transporting people from the Arizona area across the county about twice a month for the last six months. He allegedly told troopers he would transport between three and five people each trip.
Ramirez allegedly said he would get paid $600 per trip, with the money coming from a combination of families, the people he was transporting or a person arranging the trip.
He also allegedly told troopers he would sometimes receive additional payments upward of $3,000 in all cash.
The five people Ramirez was allegedly transporting told troopers they had entered the county through the Mexican/United States border in January and early February 2025.
One of the five people allegedly told troopers he paid $20,000 to cross into the United States. He allegedly told troopers he was supposed to work off his debts to a smuggling operation based in Texas.
Two of the other people allegedly told troopers they paid $3,000 to enter the county.
Ramirez is charged with five counts of transporting illegal aliens, one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and one count of illegally entering the United States.
He was set to appear before a federal judge on Monday.
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