A convicted human trafficker has informed the Department of Justice that he previously employed MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to shuttle undocumented migrants across the country — a revelation linked to a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee.

The smuggler, identified as Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, owned the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving when he was pulled over by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. According to ABC News, Hernandez Reyes disclosed his connection to Abrego Garcia after receiving “limited immunity” from the DOJ.

Sources told ABC News that Hernandez Reyes told federal prosecutors he operated a “taxi service” out of Baltimore and first met Abrego Garcia around 2015. He admitted to hiring him on several occasions to transport migrants from Texas to various destinations across the U.S.

Hernandez Reyes, who has a criminal history including a 2020 human trafficking conviction, was deported after serving 18 months in prison and ordered not to reenter the U.S. for at least three years, according to The Tennessee Star. Despite the order, he returned illegally and was arrested again in Texas in 2022 on firearm charges. He later faced federal sentencing for unlawful reentry by a felon and received a 30-month sentence. Last month, DOJ officials interviewed him at the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega, Alabama, ABC reported.

As for Abrego Garcia, records show he entered the U.S. unlawfully in 2012. His 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee raised immediate suspicions among law enforcement. State troopers pulled him over for driving without a license while transporting nine passengers. The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed that officers suspected him of human trafficking. However, despite those suspicions, the Biden administration’s FBI reportedly instructed the Tennessee Highway Patrol to release him.

Additional details from bodycam footage released by the Tennessee Department of Safety show that Abrego Garcia was in possession of $1,400 in cash during the stop. Hernandez Reyes was known to charge $350 per person for smuggling services, suggesting the cash may have been linked to such operations.

Abrego Garcia was deported in March under the Trump administration, but that removal is now being challenged. He claims the deportation violated a 2019 immigration court order that barred his return to either El Salvador or Guatemala.