EXCLUSIVE Inside human trafficking stash house where migrants were hidden in basement via SECRET TUNNEL - and where the smugglers worshipped cartel saint Santa Muerte
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/texas/article-13285181/Inside-human-trafficking-stash-house-Texas-migrants-hidden-secret-tunnel-smugglers-worshiped-shrine-cartel-patron-saint.html
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Five illegal immigrants arrested inside the home
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Police found make-shirt altar to Santa Muerte, cartel patron saint smugglers pray to for protection
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A tunnel was being used to conceal migrants and possibly drugs
A recent bust of a so-called stash house, where human traffickers hide and warehouse illegal immigrants as they are being snuck into the US, offers a rare glimpse into how migrants get from the US-Mexico border to cities as far away as Chicago and New York while staying in the shadows.
Texas state troopers were tipped off to a house in Fort Worth that was being used as a stash house Friday, Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland told DailyMail.com.
Inside, cops found five illegal immigrants, an altar to the Santa Muerte and a tunnel were migrants, and possibly drugs, could be easily hidden.
'We always associate stash houses with the border, but they're all over the US,' Cleveland, a retired Border Patrol agent and sheriff of Sanderson, Texas, explained.
'We have information other migrants being smuggled by this same group had already made it to Georgia.'
Santa Muerte, the female personifcation of death has been denounced by the Catholic Church, forbids her worship as blasphemous. However, cult-like followers have been growing in recent years, including within the drug cartel community.
Members of drug cartels are known to venerate her, asking for her protection in their criminal exploits, and leaving offerings to her, including cash, food and flowers. In the Fort Worth stash house, apples, flowers, a bottle of tequila and cigarettes had been offered to her.