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A 24-year-old Pharr man this week admitted to paying a prison guard at the La Villa Detention Center to smuggle a cellphone to an inmate charged with hostage taking.
Abel Angel Solis admitted to the charge on Monday, U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani announced in a news release.
Solis paid Jose Martin Espinoza, a 36-year-old Mercedes resident, to smuggle the phone.
Espinoza — the former prison guard — pleaded guilty in late April to his role in the scheme.
“On May 17, 2022, Espinoza attempted to enter the detention center for his normally scheduled duty,” the news release stated. “At that time, other prison officials conducted a search and found a cellphone wrapped in cellophane inside his work cap.”
Federal investigators found cash app transactions between Espinoza and Solis that totaled $1,500 for the delivery of three phones from Espinoza to 26-year-old Pharr resident Sixto Gonzalez Jr.
On Monday, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to hostage taking for luring a 19-year-old man to Mexico in order to force a ransom to be paid for his safe return, a news release stated.
“On June 23, 2021, Gonzalez lured the victim into Mexico by purporting to have a job opportunity to give him. Gonzalez picked the victim up after the victim crossed into Mexico on foot,” the release stated.
When they arrived at a house in Reynosa, Gonzalez and several co-conspirators restrained him and beat him.
Over the next two days, they demanded $5,000 and a firearm for his return, according to the release.
“When the family could not immediately obtain the funds, conspirators sent a video to the victim’s family with footage of him being beaten with a wooden board until the board fractured,” the release stated.
On Monday, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to hostage taking for luring a 19-year-old man to Mexico in order to force a ransom to be paid for his safe return, a news release stated.
Law enforcement eventually found the house and found the victim “bound with zip ties, covered with a blanket and with bruises throughout his body.”
They also found Gonzalez, who is scheduled to be sentenced on that charge in August.
He faces up to life in prison.
Gonzalez also pleaded guilty on Monday to his role in the smuggling scheme at the La Villa Detention Center, court records show.
A sentencing hearing in this case has not yet been scheduled.
As for Espinoza and Solis, they are scheduled to be sentenced this summer and face up to 15 years in prison, according to the release.
