PHOENIX — Federal authorities say they dismantled an apparent human smuggling stash house in north Phoenix, discovering 19 migrants crammed into a single apartment unit while preparing to be transported to other states.
Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations executed search warrants on March 2 at an apartment complex near 19th and Peoria avenues. Investigators said the unit was being used as a temporary holding location for migrants who had recently crossed the border and were waiting to be transported elsewhere in the country.
According to federal court documents, agents found 19 people inside Unit 103 at the Ark on Desert Cove Apartments. The migrants had allegedly been smuggled across the border and were staying in the apartment only briefly before being driven to destinations across the United States…