Arizona cops bust illegal immigrant smuggling ring

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona police on Wednesday arrested 12 people accused of operating a smuggling ring that brought thousands of illegal immigrants from Central and South America using large cargo vans.

Officers from a joint federal, state and local task force seized 62 vehicles and arrested the suspects, including three minors and eight suspected illegal immigrants, at four locations in the Phoenix valley, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said.

The smugglers used large cargo vans and other vehicles to run illegal immigrants from the Mexico border to the Phoenix valley, from where they were moved across the United States.

"Today we have put a huge dent in the human smuggling arena ... in Arizona," said DPS Capt. Fred Zumbo, the commander of the task force that also included Phoenix Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

Arizona straddles a furiously trafficked corridor for smugglers hauling illegal immigrants and drugs from Mexico.

In 2009, U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson area made 241,000 arrests, almost half the total caught slipping over the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border.

Those arrested face multiple charges for crimes including human smuggling, operating a criminal syndicate, fraud and fraudulent schemes, and identity theft.

Investigators said they believed the criminal organization had also provided a vehicle involved in a fatal rollover in southern Arizona in June 2009, in which 11 illegal immigrants were killed.

The investigation began more than a year ago when police in the west valley city of Goodyear spotted 30-50 vehicles, all in one location. The vehicles were moving in and out at odd hours.

Their suspicions were further raised as the vehicles were registered to unidentifiable owners at fictitious addresses.

DPS said the operation is ongoing and good lead to further arrests.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor, editing by Greg McCune and Peter Bohan)