‘Would Come Home in a Box’: Los Angeles Smuggling Boss ‘Turko,’ Whose Ring Moved 20,000 Guatemalans Through a Westlake Stash House, Gets Nearly 22 Years
A Guatemalan man who ran a migrant stash house in Los Angeles’ Westlake neighborhood has been sentenced to 262 months, nearly 22 years, in federal prison. Prosecutors say his network smuggled about 20,000 people from Guatemala into the United States. Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, 53, known as “Turko,” “El Jefe,” “Patrón” and “El Gallo,” was sentenced on Oct. 2, 2026, by U.S. District Judge Cynthia Valenzuela, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said. He pleaded guilty in March to a smuggling conspiracy count and one count of hostage taking.
$15,000 to $18,000 a person
According to the Justice Department, the organization operated from 2019 to July 2024. Associates in Guatemala charged $15,000 to $18,000 per migrant. “Mexican smuggling organizations” picked people up in southern Mexico and moved them across the U.S.-Mexico border. The release does not name any cartel. In the U.S., drivers took migrants to a stash house on James M. Wood Boulevard in Westlake and then on to Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, New York, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Renoj-Matul arranged for smuggling proceeds to be driven from Los Angeles to Phoenix to pay the Mexican smuggling organization, prosecutors said.
Held until the debt was paid
Prosecutors said migrants who had not paid were held at the Westlake house. One woman was held from May to July 2024 after a third party failed to pay her fee. Callers in Guatemala and Renoj-Matul told her mother she “would come home in a box,” court documents say. In a sentencing memo, prosecutors also said he held another woman against her will and “sexually assaulted her, forced her to work demeaning jobs” and threatened her family over the debt.
Newsweek’s report on the March 2025 arrests:
The Elk City crash and the others charged
The judge ordered $64,945 in restitution tied to a November 2023 crash. The Central District of California says that crash killed seven migrants, including children ages 4 and 6. A December 2023 complaint from federal prosecutors in Oklahoma described it differently: six passengers dead and a seventh critically injured near Elk City, Oklahoma. The driver, co-defendant José Paxtor-Oxlaj, got 78 months on July 31. Co-defendant Cristóbal Mejia-Chaj, 51, of Westlake, was sentenced to 33 months on Oct. 2. An alleged lieutenant, Helmer Obispo-Hernández, “Xavi,” is a fugitive. He is presumed innocent.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California: Guatemalan National Sentenced to Nearly 22 Years in Federal Prison for Leading Massive Human Smuggling Ring (Oct. 2, 2026)
- FOX 11 Los Angeles: LA smuggling ring leader sentenced to 22 years (Oct. 3, 2026)
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Oklahoma: Paxtor-Oxlaj charged after Elk City crash (Dec. 1, 2023)
- Photo: NBC Universal (NBC4 broadcast), via NBC Los Angeles (March 3, 2025). Video: Newsweek.
Reported Oct. 4, 2026, from federal prosecutors’ releases and FOX 11 coverage. The account above is the government’s; the sources do not tie the network to a named cartel. Death counts for the 2023 crash differ between the two U.S. Attorney’s Offices.