As Texas continues to battle the Mexican cartels at the southern border, the cartels are getting more brazen and creative in their efforts to stay ahead of law enforcement. A new trend sees the cartels using short-term rentals like Airbnb properties as stash houses for illegal immigrants. A recent bust in El Paso found 13 illegals being held in an Airbnb property. This as Border Patrol reports finding 265 stash houses containing more than 2,500 migrants this fiscal year in the El Paso sector alone.
Victor Avila, former ICE special agent, says this is just the latest tactic used by the cartels in their thirst for money and power. "When they say stash house, it could be a stash garage, it could be a warehouse, it could be a hotel, it could be an Airbnb, it could be a rental," he tells KTRH. "It could be any type of structure where they can put these people."
While states like Texas and the U.S. Border Patrol have arrested hundreds of smugglers and rescued thousands of migrants from these stash houses, the cartels are finding new ways to traffic their human cargo. "It sounds horrible, but I'm telling you how the cartels think," says Avila. "Because to them a human body is a commodity, it's a dollar sign, and they stash them like they were a piece of furniture."
Law enforcement is warning Airbnb and other rental property owners to be aware of who they rent to, especially in these border regions. But Avila notes there is no easy way to crack down on this behavior. "It's very hard to determine if the owner had knowledge of criminal activity when they rented it out," he says. "So it's a major concern."