ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Two Albuquerque men are in an Arizona jail Wednesday night, facing human smuggling charges. 

They were arrested as part of an ongoing operation specifically aimed at reducing human smuggling driven by Mexican cartels. 

“The cartel has begun using people who are recruited through social media to come to Cochise County,” said Carol Capas with the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office. “The prices have fluctuated from $800 per person being transported out, it’s gotten as high as $3,000 per person being transported out. The cartels instructions are to avoid or not be detected at any cost. Even if that’s driving recklessly through neighborhoods.”

Cochise County borders New Mexico to the west and Mexico to the south. 

Officials say young people from across the country are being recruited by cartels to travel to Cochise County to sneak people across the border and deliver them to the cartel. 

On Tuesday, deputies say they were searching for an SUV involved in this human trafficking scheme. They tracked it to the Pirtleville neighborhood – just north of the border with Mexico. 

The two men accused of doing the smuggling for the cartel are Truet Kozlowski and Shain Johnson. Both are from Albuquerque. 

Deputies say they had six migrants in their car. They also had fake license plates on the vehicle.

Kozlowski and Johnson are now facing felony charges in Arizona for human smuggling. 

KOB 4 took a look at the criminal histories of both men. We found a $1,400 judgment against Johnson for apparently not paying rent. 

Cochise County officials tell us that’s actually a fairly common motive. 

“We’ve stopped people saying, ‘Hey, I just came here from Louisiana, because I needed to rent money,’” said Capas. “We want people to know it’s not a quick buck, you can be greedy. But greed has its consequences. And these kids, at 20 and 21, haven’t even begun to experience those consequences yet. We just caught them yesterday. So again, this is a fact that’s going to end and hinder them for the rest of their lives in some form or other.”

Deputies in Cochise County say the people being recruited for these human smuggling schemes are often young, sometimes just teenagers. 

KOB 4 was told they made more than 400 arrests in the last couple of years as part of Operation Safe Streets.