PHOENIX — Fourteen travel agency owners or employees were indicted on human smuggling and other charges for allegedly selling airline tickets they thought would be used by illegal immigrants, officials said Thursday.

While the charges against the employees were connected only to the sale of tickets to undercover officers conducting a sting, authorities said their analysis of records shows that the six travel agencies sold tickets to an estimated 6,800 illegal immigrants since mid-2005.

The undercover officers made it clear they were arranging travel for illegal immigrants and paid cash for dozens of one-way tickets across the nation. The travel agencies offered advice on being discreet at airports, authorities said.

“They were so blatant about it, because they hadn’t been touched,” said Lt. Vince Piano of the Phoenix Police Department. “They would say, ’OK, you need to dress them like this. You need to walk them in through this. Does he have an ID?”’

Bart Graves, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said the travel agency employees were working independently of one another when they sold the tickets.

The bust marked another example of authorities trying to chip away at businesses that help smugglers transport their immigrant customers.

More than two years ago, nearly two dozen used-car-lot workers were indicted on charges of faking documents and committing other crimes to help sell vehicles to smugglers, known as “coyotes.” Authorities said the vehicles were used to ferry drugs and illegal immigrants from Mexico.

“First the used car dealers, now the travel agencies who make it possible for the coyotes to do their work,” said Attorney General Terry Goddard. “These are the critical facilitators, without whom it would be impossible to move large numbers of people around the country.”

Phoenix, located 180 miles from the Mexican border, serves as a hub for transporting illegal immigrants across the country.

Smugglers sneak immigrants across the border, bring them to stash houses in Phoenix and make their travel arrangements. If immigrants are to be flown to their final destinations, smugglers buy tickets for their customers and, in many cases, drive them to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, investigators said.

The traffickers are drawn to the Las Vegas airport because of tighter immigration security at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, said Roger Vanderpool, director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

The 14 travel agency employees were charged with the state crime of human smuggling because they were aiding in immigrant trafficking, authorities said. Some faced charges of money laundering, conspiracy, racketeering and participating in fraudulent schemes.

“I am speechless,” said 38-year-old Carmen Cortez of Phoenix, who is charged with human smuggling and illegally conducting an enterprise. “That’s all I have to say.”

At another agency, 44-year-old Nicholas Toronto of Scottsdale said he didn’t know anything about similar charges against him. “I have no idea what you are talking about,” Toronto said when told of the charges.

Goddard said the initial tip that led to the investigation came from a money laundering case that tracked the wire transfers of suspected immigrant smuggling proceeds. The tip led police to a stash house where they found 30 illegal immigrants, plane tickets and itineraries.

Goddard said investigators found the names of travel agencies in the stash house.

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On the Net:

Arizona Attorney General: http://www.azag.gov/

Arizona Department of Public Safety: www.dps.state.az.us/

Phoenix Police Department: www.phoenix.gov/police/