Man suspected of sex trafficking teenagers, also…

A 22-year-old New Mexico man is in the Uinta County Detention Center for allegedly endangering children and attempting to smuggle fentanyl into the prison. But Wyoming police initially began investigating him because they feared he and a colleague were smuggling a 15-year-old girl across the state.

Agustin Johnathan Camargo faces two counts of child endangerment, each punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000, one count of drug smuggling into prison (up to three years and $3,000), and two counts of drug possession (up to 12 months and a fine of $1,000).

His case was brought before Uinta County District Court on Friday with a felony charge.

But shady

According to an affidavit in the case, Wyoming Highway Patrol officer Scott Neilson was near a Shell gas station on Interstate 80 in Evanston on the evening of August 5 when dispatch asked if anyone could respond to a possible human trafficking case.

A man had called the emergency services and reported that a young woman needed help at the gas station. She had driven away in a white Toyota Camry with a temporary license plate, the caller said.

The subsequent arrests lasted four hours and involved numerous searches, questioning and diversions.

Neilson was driving through the area and saw the Camry pull onto an on-ramp. He followed it onto the interstate and checked it with radar as it began to pull away from him. The radar showed the car was going 85 mph in the 75 mph zone, so Neilson stopped the vehicle.

The driver's New Mexico identification card listed him as Agustin Johnathan Camargo, while the passenger's Mexican voter ID card identified him as 52-year-old Roberto Velasquez Mayorga.

The 15-year-old girl gave her name, and Velasquez Mayorga also identified a 2-year-old girl in the back seat by name, the document said.

The investigation reportedly revealed that Camargo did not have a driver's license because it was suspended or “surrendered,” a term Neilson was unfamiliar with during his background investigation.

The affidavit states that Camargo was fidgeting nervously, avoiding eye contact and was erratic in his movements and demeanor. He had several crude tattoos that did not appear to be professionally done and he was carrying several knives.

Velasquez Mayorga also appeared to have “several unprofessional tattoos” and was not as shady, but appeared to be randomly searching the vehicle's compartments, Neilson wrote.

“It didn’t appear that he actually saw what he was examining,” the officer wrote.

All the fidgeting made Neilson nervous, so he asked Camargo to chat with him in his patrol car, the affidavit states.

Neilson complied. On the way to the other car, Neilson frisked Camargo and removed the knives from his clothing, the document states.

Furtive hand movements

The affidavit states that Camargo admitted that there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest from New Mexico and that he had been arrested for heroin possession five years earlier.

Camargo reportedly called Velasquez Mayorga his uncle. He said the two girls were Velasquez Mayorga's daughters.

Talk of the trip was also shady. Camargo allegedly said the four were traveling from New Mexico to Utah, a trip that didn't require them to be anywhere near Evanston. The story later changed when Camargo allegedly said they were traveling to Denver, Colorado, to visit friends and family.

Neilson's report provides some details about body language. He says Camargo used his hands to give “surreptitious directions” and swallowed hard at the mention of Denver.

Camargo then allegedly said that the four would drive to Salt Lake City to pick up the girls' mother because she had been fired from her job as a cleaning lady there.

Get the translator

Neilson then spoke with Velasquez Mayorga, who spoke very little English. The latter allegedly showed the officer a photo of his Mexican voting card on his cellphone, which showed his photo and identity. He said he was going to Salt Lake City to take his babies to their mother, the document states.

WHP Trooper Austin Bluemel arrived at the scene along with a Uinta County Sheriff's sergeant and they helped Neilson separate the other three people so the sergeant could question the girl separately while Bluemel spoke to Velasquez Mayorga through a translator, the affidavit states.

A review of Velasquez Mayorga's records revealed that he had multiple aliases, several arrest warrants against him, and was the subject of a serious crime case that led to his deportation.

A drug-sniffing dog deployed around the car was unable to detect anything. However, Camargo admitted to having a meth pipe in the vehicle and later admitted to having a “tooter” straw on his person. A search found those admissions to be true, and obvious meth residue was also found on a foil and in a glass jar, the affidavit states.

The girl's secret

Meanwhile, the 15-year-old girl repeatedly stressed that she was not in danger. She also said that the four would get her mother, the document states.

A search of the vehicle reportedly found diapers, baby clothes and other necessities for the two-year-old, but nothing to indicate that a 15-year-old girl was along for an extended trip.

Neilson found this “strange,” he wrote.

Also strange: Although the car was registered with license plates, it allegedly showed an expired temporary license plate that was issued for a 2019 Kia Optima.

Neilson believed that the fake license plate tactic was to deceive license plate readers across the country.

Authorities were trying to find a safe place for the girl. Neilson asked Camargo how to contact the girl's mother, who he said was in Salt Lake City.

The girl’s mother is actually in New Mexico, Camargo replied.

Confused, Neilson asked why they were in the area if the girl's mother had been in New Mexico the whole time. Camargo said he had “no idea,” the affidavit states.

Neilson went back to the girl and begged her to tell the truth.

She said she did not go on the trip against her will. They were visiting a friend and she went on the trip with her mother's permission. The two men were not related to her but were friends of her parents, the girl reportedly added.

The toddler was Velasquez Mayorga's daughter, the girl said.

Neilson could not shake his fears that the men were selling the girl as a sex commodity, as they had already been arrested several times for drug trafficking and possession, he wrote.

The girl allegedly said her father had no phone and no minutes left. Neilson managed to put the girl in contact with her sister, who was reportedly very worried about her.

Money disappeared

During all this, Velasquez Mayorga's wallet disappeared.

Officers found it in the weeds about 10 feet from the car. But $700 cash that Velasquez Mayorga had in his wallet and had previously shown agents was now missing, the affidavit said.

Velasquez Mayorga accused the police of stealing from him.

Neilson had one of the agents review his traffic stop footage, but they couldn't figure out what happened to the money. When they realized the girl had at some point been sitting in the passenger seat with Velasquez Mayorga's wallet, Neilson confronted her about the money, and she admitted to hiding the $700 in her shoe.

The police put the money back in Velasquez Mayorga's wallet.

Fentanyl pill

Bluemel took the girls to a meeting with a Wyoming Department of Family Services official.

Neilson took the two men to the Uinta County Detention Center. He warned them that it was a crime in Wyoming to smuggle drugs into a prison.

Camargo admitted to having the “tooter” pipe in his pocket and reportedly handed it over. Later, when a prison officer searched Camargo, a blue pill – apparently fentanyl – fell out of his pocket, the document says.

Camargo initially claimed the pants did not belong to him, but then said he had forgotten that the pill was in his pocket, the affidavit states.

Ongoing

The Camargo case is not yet closed.

Cowboy State Daily was unable to obtain details of Velasquez Mayorga's case by press time. However, he, like Camargo, is listed as being incarcerated at the Uinta County Detention Center.

Claire McFarland can be reached at [email protected].