A suspected gang-related stabbing during a party at a Springfield home led investigators to discover 11 illegal immigrants being housed among 26 boarders in the six-bedroom house, court documents said. The owner of the home, Iris Yaneth Villalobos Aguilar, has been charged with harboring illegal immigrants. According to documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court, Aguilar bought the home at 5808 Hanover Ave. in 2006 for $950,000 from a real estate agent who was one of 20 people accused in the largest mortgage fraud case in Fairfax County history. When she bought the house, Aguilar was working for a fast food restaurant, documents said.
On Sept. 12 police interviewed a stabbing victim at a local hospital. The victim reportedly told them that he was at a party at Aguilar’s house when a member of the notoriously violent MS-13 gang stabbed him twice with a switchblade during an argument over beer, court documents said. Aguilar later denied the stabbing had taken place at her home.
The house, however, was already being scrutinized for zoning violations, and nine days after the stabbing allegedly took place, Fairfax County zoning inspectors along with the county’s gang unit and federal agents entered the home to investigate overcrowding concerns. Inside, they found 26 people, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent wrote in a sworn statement. Through interviews with the residents, the agent says he learned that 11 residents were illegal immigrants and that Aguilar was aware of their status. According to court documents, she charged them $520 a month in rent.
No lawyer was listed for Aguilar in court records. She is a Honduran immigrant who has lived legally in the U.S. since 1995 with a visa reserved for immigrants who can’t return to their home country because it would be dangerous to do so.
Aguilar purchased the property from Jaime N. Rojas, who was indicted in 2009 on wire and bank fraud charges in connection to his alleged involvement in a massive mortgage fraud scheme, authorities said. In September 2009, Rojas was among 20 other people accused of fleecing more than $9 million from banks in a plan that allegedly helped people with bad credit buy houses to be used as boarding homes.
Real estate records show the house Aguilar bought for $950,000 less than five years ago was put up for sale earlier this month. The asking price is $400,000.
