12 Hiding in a Closet, Only One Wearing Shoes: Phoenix, Arizona, Stash House With Keyed Deadbolts Leads to Harboring Charge for Mexican Man, 30, Prosecutors Say
Federal agents raiding a suspected migrant stash house in Phoenix, Arizona, found 12 people hiding in a closet, and only one of them was wearing shoes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said on Oct. 9, 2026. Prosecutors say that man, Hector Ambrosio Ruiz, 30, of Mexico, ran the house. He was arrested Oct. 8 and charged by criminal complaint with harboring illegal aliens. He is presumed innocent.
What agents say they found
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents served a federal search warrant at the Phoenix home on Oct. 7, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Its account says the agents found:
- the house’s exterior deadbolts swapped for double-cylinder locks that need a key to open from inside as well as outside;
- no furniture in the kitchen or living room;
- Ruiz with his own bedroom, while the other 11 people slept in a single room;
- more shoes in the backyard and kitchen, and a box in the garage holding 12 cellphones.
All 12 people in the house were in the U.S. without legal status, prosecutors said. Arizona’s Family, which reported the case on Oct. 9, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office described the conditions as “inhumane.”
Four others charged after earlier deportations
Four of the people found in the house were also arrested and charged separately with re-entry of a removed alien. They are Hugo Ipolito Ramirez-Vasquez, Eulogio Perez-Sanchez, Santos Antonio Giron-Castro and Obias Alexander Perez-Perez. According to the release, Ramirez-Vasquez, Giron-Castro and Perez-Perez were deported in April 2026, and Perez-Sanchez in November 2025.
The harboring charge carries up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. A criminal complaint is an accusation, not a finding of guilt.
Part of a larger Arizona push
The office listed the case under Operation Take Back America, a Justice Department initiative that targets illegal immigration, cartels and transnational criminal organizations. The release does not say that Ruiz or the house is tied to any cartel or smuggling organization. It also does not give the home’s address or say who paid for or arranged the migrants’ stay. The same day, the office said it charged 345 people with immigration-related crimes in Arizona from Oct. 3 through Oct. 9. For more on cartel cases in the state, see our Arizona cartel page.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona: “Mexican National Arrested for Harboring Illegal Aliens” (Oct. 9, 2026)
- Arizona’s Family (Haley Williams): “Man from Mexico arrested after allegedly running stash house for migrants in Phoenix” (Oct. 9, 2026)
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona: “District of Arizona Charges 345 Individuals for Immigration-Related Criminal Conduct this Week” (Oct. 9, 2026)
- Photos: HSI file photo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Wikimedia Commons, public domain; Phoenix skyline by Alan Stark, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Reported Oct. 10, 2026, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office release and Arizona’s Family’s Oct. 9 report. Neither source gives the house’s location within Phoenix, the nationalities of the other people found there, or any statement from Ruiz or a lawyer for him. No photos of the house or the people charged were released.