Two U.S. citizens face federal charges after Border Patrol’s elite tactical team raided a home in Bisbee, Ariz., in mid-August, arresting 10 people, including seven who were in the country without authorization. 

Thomas Cain Alvarez and Gregory Jerold Rhinehart were arrested on Aug. 20 after Border Patrol agents raided the house, part of a months-long investigation that linked the residence in the 900 block of American Avenue to multiple vehicles intercepted carrying people in the U.S. illegally. 

According to court documents, agents with Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector began surveilling the home in March. On Aug. 19, around 7 p.m., agents watched as Alvarez arrived at the home in a green Toyota Land Cruiser and escorted people to the rear of his home, wrote Border Patrol Agent Raymond Yocupicio. 

“This exact behavior—where Alvarez would leave his residence and return a short time after with suspected UNCs—was repeated on multiple instances throughout the evening,” wrote Yocupicio. 

Border Patrol agents sought a search warrant from U.S. Magistrate Judge Alison S. Bachus, and around 7:45 a.m., Border Patrol agents with BORTAC—the Border Patrol’s Tactical Unit—and other agents arrived at the home, and used an intercom to order anyone in the home to come out. “

“Verbal commands were given in the English and Spanish language,” Yocupicio wrote. Three people walked out of the home, including Alvarez, Rhinehart, and Alvarez’s sister Sarah Maley. BORTAC agents entered the home and searched, but did not find anyone. However, they found “fresh foot signs” and a matted trail leading to an abandoned home next door. 

The agents knocked on the door, and a man answered. Seven people were inside the home, and agents determined they were citizens of Mexico “without any documentation that would allow them to be in the United States legally,” officials said.

Alvarez waived his Miranda rights and gave agents access to his cellphone, Yocupicio wrote. Alvarez said he worked for Eads Concrete, but was fired in July. He said he lived at the home on American Avenue for a year, and his sister Maley lives with him. Rhineart, he said, stays with them a few times a week. Alvarez “became emotional and stated it was a money thing,” Yocupicio wrote. 

While Maley was arrested during the raid, she was not charged by federal officials.

Alvarez told the agents he got involved involved in smuggling through Jesus Enrique Calvo-Martinez, a Cuban national. Known as “Cubano,” Calvo-Martinez was arrested in October 2023 and charged with smuggling after Border Patrol agents intercepted him near Bisbee with two people in the country illegally in his 2009 Dodge Charger. 

Calvo-Martinez pleaded guilty in December and he was given four years probation during a hearing in April. 

Since 2021, Cochise County has faced dozens of smuggling incidents as people attempt to enter the U.S. While thousands of migrants have turned themselves over to Border Patrol agents to seek asylum, often in some of the state’s most remote regions, hundreds more have relied on smuggling organizations. Cartel-led smugglers have shifted to hiring drivers, often recruiting them through SnapChat and WhatsApp to pick up people in Cochise County and drive them to Tucson and Phoenix.  

During a press conference on Aug. 22 with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said over the last 31 months, his deputies arrested 3,762 people for “border-related crimes” at a cost of $12.5 million. 

Apprehensions in the Tucson Sector—which runs from Yuma County to the New Mexico border—spiked in December with over 80,000 and remain nearly 61 percent higher than they were a year earlier. However, since June apprehensions in the Tucson Sector collapsed to just 11,722 people, as apprehensions across the Southwest border declined by 32 percent from July and were the lowest number since September 2020. 

Alvarez, the Bisbee man who was arrested, said Calvo asked him if he wanted to make money holding people, and had worked for Calvo for a month. However, “when asked how much money he was being paid, Alvarez ended the interview,” Yocupicio wrote. 

Video from Alvarez’s phone showed him picking up people in the brush with his Land Cruiser. 

Agents also interviewed three of the men who were picked up at the house. 

Kevin Lopez-Quiroz told agents he crossed into the U.S. on Aug. 19 and was headed to North Carolina. He said he made smuggling arrangements with someone named “El Padrino” or the Godfather, in Naco, Sonora, and agreed to pay 200,000 pesos, or around $10,000. Lopez said he was picked up in Alvarez’s SUV and brought to the house where he was told to stay inside. Later, Alvarez brought pizza and sodas. 

Jaime Gomez-Silva said he paid “Usvaldo” and “Padrino” 180,000 pesos to reach North Carolina, including nearly 30,000 pesos or around $1,500 to cross the border.

Pedro Said Hernandez-Hernandez said he was headed to Chicago with his uncle and paid nearly 200,000 pesos, as well as a “mafia fee” of 100,000 or just over $5,000 to cross near Naco, Ariz. 

All three men identified their driver as Alvarez, and two men said Rhinehart was in the home sitting on the couch when they arrived. 

The two men face up to 10 years in prison for violating federal immigration law.