Mountain View Police Department officers have arrested a third person in connection to a human trafficking operation they unraveled last month.
East Palo Alto resident Abel Estuardo Franco Garcia, 43, is charged with two counts of intimidating a witness or victim. Officers arrested him Saturday (Jan. 12) after a witness working with detectives on the human trafficking case reported subsequent verbal and physical threats to her and to her family members in Guatemala, according to a press release issued Tuesday. In addition to allegedly dissuading the woman from speaking to police, Garcia drove up behind her – nearly hitting her – and then sped off.
Police arrested the first two suspects, Carlos Garza and his sister, Evelia De Maria Galvez, Dec. 20. Garza, also known as Gabino Galvez and Mynor Tobar, allegedly smuggled Guatemalan migrants into the country, sexually assaulted some of them and intimidated them into labor and into silence, according to a Mountain View Police Department press release. Galvez allegedly helped her brother and threatened a teenage victim to keep her from revealing the crimes. As many as 12 people from multiple families shared Garza’s two-bedroom apartment in the 1900 block of Latham Street.
Detectives continue to search for additional victims and witnesses of the case, and the department has vowed to keep them safe. Report related information to Detective Marco Garcia at [email protected].
