The Tennessee Star confirmed Tuesday that Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes—an already convicted human smuggler and repeat border violator—has admitted under immunity to hiring El Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia for a string of human trafficking operations across the United States.
The revelation follows a controversial 2022 Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) traffic stop where Abrego Garcia was caught transporting nine illegal immigrants through Tennessee without a license.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) pulled over Abrego-Garcia on November 30, 2022, for speeding and swerving. When troopers approached his vehicle, they were shocked to discover eight male passengers packed inside.
Initially claiming he was driving from St. Louis to his Maryland residence, he later said he was headed to another town for “construction work.”
All passengers gave the same address as Abrego-Garcia, yet there was no luggage in the vehicle—a red flag for human trafficking. The trooper noted $1,400 in cash on Abrego-Garcia, likely payment for smuggling, and an invalid Maryland driver’s license.
“He’s hauling these people for money,” one trooper said in the bodycam footage, obtained by Fox News Digital through a public records request.
When the trooper asked whose vehicle he was driving, Abrego-Garcia replied that it belonged to his “boss.”
Turns out, that so-called “boss” was none other than Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes—a convicted human trafficker. Reyes pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens across the country and was sentenced in 2020. This bombshell was confirmed after The Tennessee Star got its hands on damning court documents.
Despite the overwhelming evidence — the cash, the fake Maryland driver’s license, the contradictory statements, the gang affiliation, and a pattern matching known trafficking operations — ICE failed to respond when contacted, according to Fox News.
After THP took Abrego-Garcia into custody, they contacted the FBI for guidance. In a move that defies logic, Joe Biden’s FBI ordered THP to release him.
Video via Fox News:
Now, Hernandez Reyes—previously convicted of human trafficking in 2020 and deported after serving only 18 months—has resurfaced. Despite a court order banning his return to the U.S. for three years, he illegally reentered the country and is currently detained at the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega, Alabama.
There, according to The Tennessee Star, DOJ attorneys offered him limited immunity in exchange for testimony against Garcia.
The news outlet reported:
Hernandez Reyes reportedly told the DOJ officials that he met Abrego Garcia in 2015, just three years after the latter man reportedly admitted to illegally entering the United States.
After they met in 2015, the prisoner reportedly admitted to DOJ officials that he paid Abrego Garcia to transport illegal immigrants from Texas to various destinations throughout the United States.
The Star was first to report that Abrego Garcia was stopped by THP in 2022, when he was transporting nine people without a valid license, and the agency later confirmed it was instructed to release Abrego Garcia by the “Biden-era FBI.” DHS has additionally confirmed that troopers suspected Abrego Garcia of human trafficking during the stop.
Abrego Garcia is an El Salvador citizen who was deported by the Trump administration to his homeland in March. He claimed that the deportation violated the final deportation order issued in his immigration case in 2019, which contained a “withholding of removal” that specifically forbade his deportation to one of two nations, either Guatemala or El Salvador.
Body-worn camera footage released by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security to The Star last week revealed Abrego Garcia was carrying $1,400 in cash at the time of the arrest. Hernandez Reyes was convicted of charging passengers $350 for transportation from Texas to other parts of the country.
The post BREAKING: Convicted Human Smuggler Who Owned Vehicle in 2022 Traffic Stop Admits to Hiring Kilmar Abrego Garcia for Multiple Human Smuggling Operations appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.