LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal authorities in Los Angeles arrested two alleged leaders of a criminal organization suspected of smuggling 20,000 people from Guatemala to the U.S. and charging each person as much as $18,000 to get them into the country.

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Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, known as “Turko,” and his lieutenant, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, were taken into custody Friday. They have each pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to smuggling migrants across the border over five years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

A federal judge ordered the men, who themselves are in the country illegally, jailed without bond until their trial in April.

The indictment names Renoj-Matul as the head of one of the largest human smuggling organizations in the U.S., a vast ring operating for at least a dozen years that primarily transported people to the U.S. from Guatemala.

The criminal network was responsible for the deaths of seven immigrants without legal status — including a 4-year-old child — who were killed in a November 2023 vehicle crash in Oklahoma, prosecutors said.

Acting United States Attorney Joe McNally, of the Central District of California, announces arrests of a transnational criminal organization that allegedly smuggled approximately 20,000 immigrants from Guatemala to the United States over five years on Monday, March 3, 2025, in Los Angeles. They are looking for Helmer Obispo-Hernandez pictured at left. (Sarah Reingewirtz/The Orange County Register via AP)

A driver who’s been in custody in Oklahoma since that crash, Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj, was also charged in the California indictment, according to the court documents. Another man, Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, a lieutenant in the organization and a supervisor of a team of drivers, faces charges as well. He’s believed to be in Guatemala, officials said.

Attorneys for the four men could not be located Monday for comment.

Renoj-Matual was assisted by associates in Guatemala who solicited people who each paid between $15,000 and $18,000 to be smuggled to the U.S. through Mexico, prosecutors said.

For an additional fee, the migrants were transported and moved to various destinations in the United States, including Los Angeles and Phoenix. Some of the migrants who weren’t able to pay the fees were held hostage in a stash house near downtown Los Angeles, according to prosecutors.

“These smuggling organizations have no regard for human life and their conduct kills,” Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally said in a statement. “The indictment and arrests here have dismantled one of the country’s largest and most dangerous smuggling organizations.”

If convicted of all charges, the defendants could face a statutory maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment.

A 37-year-old St. Paul man has been sentenced to three years of probation for exchanging a flurry of gunshots with another man outside a White Bear Lake bar in 2023.

Charles Edward Stevens-Thigpen was shot in the thigh and turned himself in to police two days after the shootout at Doc’s Landing, telling them it followed an argument over a spilled drink.

Charles Edward Stevens-Thigpen and Kardell Baraka Otae Jackson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

The charges say Kardell Baraka Otae Jackson fired off a shot at Stevens-Thigpen, who had rounded the corner of the bar, barely missing him. The two men fired 13 rounds at each other in the parking lot, including one that grazed a 48-year-old man who was sitting in the bar.

A bullet was found lodged in a dart machine, and three bullet holes were discovered in the bar’s roofline.

In July, Stevens-Thigpen pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to second-degree assault.

Jackson, 51, of St. Paul, faces the same charge and also two counts of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. His case is scheduled to go before a jury March 19.

Surveillance video

According to the charging documents, officers were called to the bar along White Bear Avenue just north of Interstate 694 shortly before 1 a.m. Sept. 24, 2023. The shooters had fled but were soon identified as Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson.

Surveillance video showed that Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson got into a “heated dispute” inside the bar. At one point, Jackson held a pool cue as if he was going to strike Stevens-Thigpen with it. Two women and a man intervened and blocked Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson from one another.

Jackson ran to his Chevrolet Tahoe with Stevens-Thigpen following a few seconds behind with a pistol in his hands. Jackson fired off a shot at Stevens-Thigpen, who took cover behind a Tesla, and the two men exchanged gunfire, the charges say.

Stevens-Thigpen nearly shot a woman who ran toward the Tahoe. Jackson helped her get into the SUV before he again shot at Stevens-Thigpen. Stevens-Thigpen “grimaced” and began to favor his right leg, the charges say.

As Jackson and the woman fled the parking lot, Stevens-Thigpen fired three to four more rounds at the Tahoe. He ran to a GMC Denali and also fled.

Turned over gun

Police say a man called 911 to report he was trying to drive to the hospital after he had been shot in the leg. Officers tried to make contact with the caller, but he didn’t answer their return calls. The phone number was associated with Stevens-Thigpen.

Stevens-Thigpen voluntarily went to the police department two days later, turning over a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun to police when he arrived.

Stevens-Thigpen told police he was at the bar when he bumped into a table, knocking a glass of soda onto his ex-girlfriend’s sister. He said that caused an argument with the woman, who was Jackson’s girlfriend, and Jackson intervened.

“The man told me that he got something for my (expletive) ass and he’s gonna pop me,” Stevens-Thigpen said at his July 8 plea hearing.

Stevens-Thigpen said he went to his Denali to get his 9mm as a “precaution.” He said when he saw Jackson in the parking lot, Jackson fired at him. He returned gunfire.

“I believe four shots were fired before I fired my first shot,” Stevens-Thigpen said at his plea hearing.

He said he went to a doctor the next day because of severe bleeding from his injury, and that his family convinced him to talk to police.

Jackson was arrested Sept. 27 in the parking lot of his workplace. His Tahoe had three bullet holes to its passenger side. He denied firing a gun at the bar. Officers executed a search warrant on his Tahoe and recovered a Glock 9mm handgun, the charges say.

‘Imperfect self-defense’

Stevens-Thigpen entered a straight plea to the felony charge, meaning there was no agreement between the defense and the prosecution on the terms of his sentence.

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A conviction carries up to seven years in prison. Since he had no previous felony convictions, the state guideline sentence was a three-year prison term.

In arguing for a downward departure, his attorney, Alex Kyes, told Judge Andrew Gordon the offense is “substantially less serious” than the typical offense as it constituted “imperfect self-defense” because his client was not the initial and primary aggressor. He noted he cooperated with law enforcement.

Gordon imposed a stay of imposition, meaning the conviction will become a misdemeanor as long as he follows conditions of his three years of supervised probation. The prosecution did not object to the departure.

Pop punk band the Offspring will headline Minneapolis’ Target Center on Aug. 15 on a bill that also includes ’00s hitmakers Jimmy Eat World and New Found Glory.

Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Friday through Ticketmaster. Citi cardholders have access to a presale that runs from 10 a.m. Tuesday through 10 p.m. Thursday.

Guitarist/vocalist Bryan “Dexter” Holland and bassist Gregory “Greg K.” Kriesel formed what would become the Offspring in 1983. Guitarist Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman joined the following year and the band released their first single “I’ll Be Waiting” in 1986. They went on to sign to a small label and issue their self-titled debut before inking a deal with emerging punk label Epitaph Records.

The Offspring didn’t take off in a major way until their third album, 1994’s “Smash,” found success in the wake of Nirvana and Green Day bringing punk to the masses. Fueled by the singles “Come Out and Play,” “Self Esteem” and “Gotta Get Away,” “Smash” topped six million in sales and stands to this day as Epitaph’s biggest selling album.

With a newfound and large audience, the band jumped ship to Columbia Records for 1997’s “Ixnay on the Hombre.” For the next decade, the Offspring maintained a strong presence on both rock and alternative radio. They only released one album in the ’10s, but continued to tour.

After firing Kriesel in 2018 and longtime drummer Pete Parada in 2021, Holland and Wasserman returned to action with the albums “Let the Bad Times Roll” in 2021 and “Supercharged” last year.

The band co-headlined the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand with 311 in 2018 and played the inaugural Minnesota Yacht Club Festival last summer.

Jimmy Eat World landed their breakthrough single with 2001’s “The Middle,” while New Found Glory did the same the following year with “My Friends Over You.”

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Supporters of a Minnesota bill that would ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports rallied at the state Capitol Monday ahead of a vote in the House.

The measure calls for restricting participation in girls sports at the elementary and secondary school levels to biological females. Republicans are calling the bill the “Preserving Girls’ Sports Act” and say it will keep a level playing field in school athletics.

The bill sponsor, Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, said it was about fairness.

Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“Science and common sense tell us that biological differences do matter,” Scott said. “They matter in athletics, and when boys and men compete in girls sports, they have an inherent advantage.”

Scott spoke at a rally ahead of the vote with around 200 supporters of the bill and Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer turned conservative activist and prominent opponent of transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports.

During the rally, Gaines was accompanied by Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies for security and former Minneapolis Police Union President Bob Kroll.

“Minnesota for too long has turned its back on women and girls,” she said. “The concept of gender identity and the reality of sex are in direct conflict.”

At a news conference following the rally, Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers and LGBT activists called the bill a “hateful” attack on the rights of transgender people and a distraction from issues that affect significantly broader swaths of the public.

Scott’s bill is the latest that Minnesota Republicans have advanced to the House floor with their one-seat advantage over DFLers, and comes amid a national push against transgender athletes at the state and federal level.

Riley Gaines. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The bill is unlikely to pass in the House, where Republicans are one vote short of the 68 needed to pass bills. House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman says all 66 DFL members are prepared to vote no.

Senate measure

Minnesota Senate Republicans also attempted to vote on a transgender athletes bill Monday, though Senate DFLers blocked their motion to take up the measure 34-33 on party lines.

Minnesota policy on transgender athletic participation is also facing challenges from the administration of President Donald Trump, which asserts that allowing those born male who identify as female to participate in women’s school sports violates Title IX, a federal law banning sex discrimination in education.

In February, the president signed an executive order allowing federal agencies to enforce the administration’s interpretation of Title IX, though some states and high school sports groups have said they would not comply. Minnesota is among them, something that prompted threats of legal action by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Debate

Gaines said Minnesota and other states’ willingness to risk the loss of federal funding to defy federal orders banning transgender athletes shows a commitment among Democrats to “destroy biological reality” and “disavow” girls’ rights.

Opponents of the bill said conservatives are playing “political theater” and trying to keep transgender people from fully participating in society.

“Transgender people are the built-in target for lawmakers right now looking to score cheap political points instead of actually doing their jobs and serving their constituents in Minnesota and across our country,” said Chris Mosier, the first transgender athlete to join a U.S. national team.

Mosier, a triathlete who challenged and helped change the International Olympic Committee’s rules on transgender athletes, joined DFL lawmakers at a news conference on the bill Monday afternoon.

Rep. Leigh Finke. (Ben Hovland/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)

Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker, said current state law doesn’t question whether six or seven year old girls can participate in sports, but the GOP bill does.

“That’s what this bill says — if you are a six-year-old trans girl, we are going to target you for exclusion,” Finke said. “It is hateful. It is cruel.”

Rep. Sydney Jordan and Rep. Jamie Long, both Minneapolis DFLers, questioned how the restrictions would be enforced if the bill became law. They raised the possibility that minors might have to take mouth swab tests so their biological sex could be determined by a laboratory, or even have their sex physically verified.

That would be a major invasion of children’s privacy and potentially discourage participation in girls sports, they said.

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