The Los Angeles-based leader of what federal prosecutors say was one of the largest human smuggling organizations in the nation is expected to plead guilty Friday to running the group that illegally brought about 20,000 immigrants from Guatemala into the United States — including seven who died in a car crash.
Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, 52, has agreed to enter a plea in Los Angeles federal court to one count of conspiring to bring aliens into the U.S. for financial gain and one count of hostage taking. He faces a possible maximum of life in prison on the hostage taking count, according to his plea agreement.
A Guatemalan citizen who lived in the Westlake district near downtown, Renoj-Matul was arrested in February 2025 together with his alleged right-hand man, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, 49, also of the Westlake neighborhood.
Once the immigrants were smuggled into the United States, some were held in “stash houses” in the Westlake area and elsewhere until fees to the smugglers were paid, authorities said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges that Renoj-Matual was assisted by associates in Guatemala who solicited immigrants to come to the United States, accepted payment of between $15,000 and $18,000 for each person smuggled into the United States, and coordinated the transport of the undocumented immigrants from Guatemala to the United States.
In November 2023, one of the group’s members caused a car accident in Elk City, Oklahoma, while he was smuggling illegal immigrants from New York to Los Angeles. That car accident resulted in the deaths of seven people who were passengers in the vehicle he drove. Of the seven people killed, three were minors, including a 4-year-old child, court papers show.
According to the indictment returned in February 2025, the Renoj-Matul organization operated for at least a dozen years.
Prosecutors contend that in 2024, Renoj-Matul and Mejia-Chaj held hostage two Guatemalan nationals smuggled into the United States who had not paid smuggling fees. The defendants allegedly threatened to kill the victims until third parties paid for their release.