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A years-long conspiracy to smuggle thousands of people into the U.S. by transporting them inside wooden crates and then drilling them shut has landed four men — most from Mission — in federal prison.
U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in a news release Wednesday that Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane sentenced Diego Flores, 29, Gerardo Villarreal, 34, and Gilberto Rios, 35 — all from Mission — to 13 years, 10 years and five-and-a-quarter years, respectively.
Villarreal had additionally admitted to being a felon in possession of a firearm and, together with a supervised release violation, got him a total of 12 years in prison.
They had previously pleaded guilty along with a fourth defendant, Antonio Cuevas-Lozano, 46, of Mexico who was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the human smuggling conspiracy, and who will be in removal proceedings after his incarceration.
Flores, Rios and Villarreal were also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the release that the conspiracy, which was investigated by U.S. Border Patrol authorities began in April 2022 when Flores hired drivers, referred to as “hot shots,” to transport containers north on flat-bed trailers.
These containers included wooden boxes, within sheds or surrounded by hay bales.
“If ever intercepted at the Falfurrias Border Patrol (BP) checkpoint, the drivers would minimize culpability on those within the smuggling organization as the drivers were unaware of what they were transporting,” the USAO said in the release.
Law enforcement authorities then discovered 40 people in the country illegally on April 26, 2022. They were inside wooden boxes.
Another 69 people were found in compartments within the roofs of two sheds strapped onto flat-bed trailers, according to USAO, on July 19, 2023.
Then on Aug. 18, 2023, there were 28 people discovered inside a compartment hidden by hay bales. There were also 36 more people found inside wooden crates which were “loaded on a trailer 11 days later.”
Eight people were then found inside a compartment underneath a trailer on Sept. 1, 2023, with only the road below.
“On each occasion, authorities spoke to those recovered and uncovered the large-scale smuggling organization,” the USAO said, adding that in every case the defendants told the people being smuggled into the U.S. to get inside these confines, which were built at a ranch in Mission, and drilled them closed with “no means of escape.”
Authorities seized three firearms from the ranch while executing a search warrant on Sept. 5, 2023. This is also when Villarreal, a felon, was found to be in possession of a pistol.
Another conspirator, Noe Vasquez, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on Feb. 1, when “the court heard testimony of how the smuggling organization moved approximately 3,000 non-U.S. citizens and used firearms to control them.”
It was learned at that time that as many as 70 people were trapped inside these containers at a time.
According to the USAO, Flores, who had previously been convicted of smuggling, was the leader of this operation.
“The court also considered how the organization utilized multiple firearms to threaten the individuals,” the USAO said. “Judge Crane noted the complete disregard for the safety of the undocumented people the organization exhibited, expressing that the means and methods of transportation were “inhumane.”
Hamdani said in a statement that the smugglers “ply their trade praying on the vulnerable.”
“These smugglers cramped dozens of migrants into wooden crates and then bolted those crates shut, leaving the migrants to the mercy of South Texas’s brutal heat,” he said. “Such conduct was not just predatory; it also demonstrated a total disregard for the value of human life. Today’s sentences reflect how my office will not rest until we disrupt and dismantle the deadly human smuggling operations that cause so much sorrow along the Southwest border.”
The defendants will remain in custody until they’re transferred to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.
