26 August 2024 , 18:27
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A U.S. federal court on Wednesday sentenced a Mexican national to 40 years in prison for his role in a human smuggling operation that tragically claimed the lives of eight people near Del Rio, Texas.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), a federal court in Del Rio handed down a lengthy prison sentence to Nicolas Mondragon-Gonzalez, also known as ‘Chayo’ and ‘Flaco,’ a 36-year-old from Luvianos, Mexico.
The DOJ cited court documents indicating that Mondragon-Gonzales was “a leader and orchestrator of a human smuggling organization,” alleged to be trafficking an average of 20 undocumented migrants a day into the U.S.
In March 2021, he allegedly hired a driver, Sebastian Tovar, to transport nine undocumented migrants. When a state trooper attempted to pull over Tovar’s pickup truck, Tovar led officers on a high-speed chase, during which his truck veered into an oncoming lane and collided head-on with another vehicle.
Eight of the nine passengers in Tovar’s vehicle were killed—18 to 20 years old Mexican nationals, while two people in the other vehicle were injured.
At the scene, Border Patrol agents reportedly noticed a pickup truck idling in traffic. While directing traffic around the crash site, several people from the truck bolted on foot. Agents managed to apprehend 12 migrants, four of whom admitted they were involved in a failed smuggling attempt that spanned both the stopped truck and the one that had crashed.
Tovar was sentenced to 35 years in prison in August 2023 for his role in the criminal operation.
Mondragon-Gonzalez was arrested in September 2021 and pleaded guilty to federal charges in January 2022. The charges included one count of conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants, one count of transporting undocumented immigrants resulting in death, and two counts of transporting undocumented immigrants.
Others involved in migrant smuggling into the U.S.—Lauren Michelle Malmquist, Veronica Torres-Mendez, and Eduardo Rivera Benitez, who all pleaded guilty to transporting undocumented immigrants resulting in death—could face life sentences, while Jose Eli Rodriguez faces up to 10 years in prison.
Codefendant Ruben Junior Rodriguez-Jaimes, who served as a foot guide, was handed a 15-year prison sentence in August 2023. Rogelio Manuel Luna received a nine-year sentence in June 2024, and Jennifer Oralia Davis, known as ‘Paypa,’ was sentenced to 12.5 years jail in September 2023.