Third suspect arrested in human trafficking case of victims from Guatemala

MOUNTAIN VIEW >> A 43-yearold man suspected of threatening a witness and victim connected to a human trafficking case was arrested, according to authorities.

The suspect, 43-year-old Abel Estuardo Franco Garcia, was booked into jail Saturday on two counts of intimidating a witness or victim, according to Mountain View police.

Last month, Mountain View police arrested a brother and sister suspected of bringing Guatemalan families and minors to the United States and subjecting them to forced labor and sexual slavery. Carlos Garza, 33, who also goes by the names Gabino Galvez and Mynor Tobar, is suspected of multiple counts of human trafficking. Evelia De Maria Galvez, 41, was booked on suspicion of being an accessory to a crime and intimidating a victim.

During a follow-up interview with a female witness on Jan. 10, detectives were told Franco Garcia threatened her and one of the trafficking victims and their family. The witness told detectives that family members of the victim who are still living in Guatemala were also being threatened.

The witness told detectives that the threats from Franco Garcia had escalated, and he tried to dissuade the victim and witnesses from speaking with police.

On Jan. 11, the detective received a frantic call from the same witness who said Franco Garcia had “driven up behind them, nearly hit them, and then sped off at a high rate of speed,” according to police.

Franco Garcia was arrested the next day.

The investigation into the human trafficking case began on Oct. 4, 2018, when police visited a two-bedroom apartment in the 1900 block of Latham Street in response to a report that a man had attempted to sexually assault a teenage girl a few months earlier.

Officers had been to the residence several times in previous weeks, once to check on a report of a man with a gun threatening to shoot a woman and a young boy, and once for a welfare check on a possible victim of child abuse.

While at the apartment, officers learned that 12 people from several families were living in close quarters. Police were told by two people in the home that Garza had helped numerous people illegally enter the U.S. from Guatemala. Once in Mountain View, they said, Garza would intimidate, threaten and scare them into obedience, creating a culture of fear for anyone living with him or brought to the city by him, according to the report.