McALLEN — A husband and wife duo from Rio Grande City have been sentenced for attempting to smuggle bulk cash into Mexico.
Reymundo De Leon Reyna, 23, and his wife, Amy Arleth Lerma, 23, were sentenced to federal prison on Friday for attempting to smuggle more than $50,000 in cash into Mexico through the Hidalgo port of entry.
The pair were arrested at the bridge on Feb. 9 and later pleaded guilty to the charge in late April of this year.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa sentenced Lerma, who is pregnant and had been held in custody since her February arrest, to seven months in prison.
At the time of her sentencing, Lerma had been in custody at the East Hidalgo Detention Center in La Villa for six months and 26 days, according to officials with the U.S. Probation Office. As a result, the seven-month sentence she received Friday means she will be released this week.
However, Hinojosa handed down a stiffer sentence to her husband due to what the judge said was Reyna’s “greater role” in the crime.
“Although (Lerma) had the currency on her… Mr. Reyna is the one who had several communications on his cellular phone,” the judge said, referring to text messages between Reyna and the person to whom the couple was set to deliver the cash to in Mexico.
For that, Hinojosa sentenced Reyna to one year and one day in prison.
Reyna and Lerma were arrested at the Hidalgo bridge after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents noticed “a large amount of bulk cash wrapped in a rubber band in Lerma’s purse.”
When the pair were directed to a secondary inspection, agents discovered more cash inside Lerma’s pants and an envelope filled with more bundles of cash.
In all, Lerma was carrying $54,377 which she and Reyna had failed to declare as they attempted to cross the bridge.
As investigators continued to probe the couple, Reyna admitted that he and Lerma had stayed at a McAllen home for two days before trying to cross back into Mexico with the cash given to them by someone known simply as “La Güera,” according to court records.
This isn’t the first time the couple have found themselves running afoul of the law.
In July 2017, when they were both 18 years old, the couple was arrested by Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies for attempting to smuggle a woman into the country.
They pleaded guilty and were both sentenced to five years of probation and 240 hours of community service.
The pair were still on probation for that conviction at the time they attempted to smuggle the cash. As a result, they are both pending probation revocation hearings in state court.
That previous conviction for human smuggling was something Judge Hinojosa touched on while deliberating their punishment Friday.
He openly asked Lerma why the severity of her state case hadn’t deterred her from breaking the law again.
Hinojosa was also critical of pleas for leniency due to Lerma’s pregnancy, saying her bringing a baby into this world while committing a crime is “really not a good sign of motherhood.”
“The children are not at fault, but they are still her children,” Hinojosa said.
The judge’s admonishments of Reyna were equally as harsh.
Reyna responded “I don’t know” when Hinojosa asked him why he had turned to cash smuggling. When pushed further, Reyna — who is unemployed — said he had needed the money for his children’s birthdays.
“You know what most people do? They go to work,” Hinojosa said.
“That says a lot about you that you cannot remember the last time that you were working. … That says a lot negatively about you,” the judge further said.
In the end, Hinojosa did show leniency to Lerma, telling her, “I think you’re a better person than what you’ve done the last few years.”
After handing down a sentence that would see her freed in four days, Hinojosa told Lerma, “Do you understand that I’m asking you not to let me down?”
An emotional Lerma responded in the affirmative.
