Family charged with immigrant smuggling

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Investigators say that a San Diego-area family used their large house in an expensive neighborhood to warehouse illegal immigrants.

Maria del Carmen Alvarez, 53, and Indalecio Alvarez Montoya, 57, of Fallbrook, Calif., and their children, Juan Alvarez and Patricia Marquez pleaded not guilty Monday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. They were arrested Friday.

The matriarch, Maria Alvarez, played an active part in the human smuggling operation, prosecutors said. She allegedly met would-be border crossers in Tijuana to give them instructions and then picked them up in San Diego and drove them to her house in Fallbrook, keeping them in the guest house on the property until their fees were paid.

"This was their major source of income," said Dane Bowen, assistant special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. "They were full-service."

Investigators say that the family is worth more than a million dollars and also own a strip mall in Riverside County, while the son owns an avocado farm.

A hearing is set Thursday on Maria Alvarez's request for a court-appointed lawyer on the grounds that she is indigent and on bail for the family.