Nine Members of Migrant Smuggling Ring Plead Guilty To Conspiracy Charges

Nine people accused of being part of a migrant smuggling ring have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. They also admitted to harboring people and transporting them further into the United States.

The people in question operated between at least October 2021 and April 2023, according to Border Report. They took people who crossed the border unlawfully and picked them up in Luna County, New Mexico. Then they took them to stash houses and transported them further into the country, including to Virginia and California.

The outlet added that the ring used peer-to-peer money transfer apps to get payments. One defendant was sentenced to 45 months in prison plus three years' probation, while another one got 37 months and three years' probation. Another one got time served plus two years' probation and another one got one year's probation. They agreed to forfeit vehicles, firearms, ammunition and an all-terrain vehicle.

There have been several such sentences in the past weeks. Just days ago, a woman who led a failed human smuggling attempt that ended up with a dead migrant pleaded guilty to federal charges, getting 10 years in prison.

Concretely, Georgina Ramirez pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to transport migrants and high-speed flight from an immigration checkpoint, Border Report detailed.

The incident took place in September 2023, when Ramirez was transporting migrants who she had kept in a stash house in New Mexico. She expected migrants would pay her for helping them avoid an immigration checkpoint nearby after being told Border Patrol agents were not stopping vehicles.

However, when she approached the area, she saw agents were actively conducting actions, stopping cars and questioning drivers. After being stopped she answered questions from agents but declined to lower the windows of the rear seats, arguing they didn't work.

Agents noticed passengers at the back and sought to take the car for secondary inspection, but Ramirez accelerated suddenly and sought to leave the checkpoint behind. She reached a speed of 110 miles and hour and stopped a few miles later, telling passenger to get out of the car and run. "We all fled on foot. While fleeing, one of the aliens I was transporting was struck by an oncoming vehicle and was killed," Ramirez while detailing the incident.

In late May, two Texans pleaded guilty to charging thousands of dollars to smuggle migrants into the U.S. through Laredo. The men in question, Mac Quese Howard and De Richardson Miller, admitted to conspiring to transport migrants through Laredo, in South Texas, U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ganjei said. Earlier in May, a dozen migrants were found hidden inside hollow hay bales following a traffic stop in the state.