A 23-year-old citizen of Mexico is the first person held under a new Colorado human-smuggling law after he crashed a van in Idaho Springs during a snowstorm, killing four passengers.
Authorities believe driver Jose F. Franco-Rodriguez was smuggling immigrants.
“We got a very clear message from the legislature this year that if you do get caught (smuggling people) you are going to pay a very serious penalty,” Sgt. Jeff Goodwin, spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol, said Wednesday.
Franco-Rodriguez was being held on investigation of 46 criminal charges stemming from Tuesday’s crash, the most serious of which are 14 felony human-smuggling counts, Goodwin said.
Franco-Rodriguez could face up to eight years in prison and a $750,000 fine for each of the smuggling charges, Goodwin said.
Franco-Rodriguez was driving eastbound on Interstate 70 in a Dodge van filled with 14 passengers from Mexico about 1:40 p.m. Tuesday when he lost control on a snow- packed curve in Idaho Springs, hit a tree and rolled the van, authorities say. Three men and a woman who were thrown from the van died.
The driver fled, but sheriff’s deputies using search dogs found him hiding in a storage shed about four hours later. He was taken to the Clear Creek County Jail in Georgetown late Tuesday.
“He’s in very deep trouble,” Idaho Springs Police Chief David Wohlers said Wednesday.
The van threw two people out the side and two others out of the back while it rolled. Two victims had to be pulled from underneath the van, Wohlers said. The dead woman was about four months pregnant, he said.
Ten passengers survived and were taken to St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver for treatment. Identities were not available Wednesday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers interviewed injured passengers Wednesday, said Jeff Copp, ICE’s Denver district special agent in charge.
“It was believed to be a smuggling trip,” Copp said.
He said most immigrant smugglers aren’t experienced at driving in snow and don’t bother to check weather conditions before traveling.
“The smuggler is in this to make money,” Copp said. “The more trips he makes, the more money he gets. They have no regard for the lives of the people they take across the country.”
I-70 is one of the nation’s major conduits for illegal immigrants, Copp said. “It really isn’t seasonal. They come year round.”
He said the suspect may face additional federal charges.
State Patrol officers will inspect the van to determine whether mechanical problems contributed to the crash, Trooper Gilbert Mares said.
The belief, however, is that the driver was traveling too fast during a snowstorm, Mares said. The van is not built to carry 15 people, and its handling would be affected by that much weight, he said.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
