Federal prosecutors in Laredo secured convictions against two illegal aliens who built and sold machine guns and cocaine in the border city. One of the men pleaded guilty earlier this year, while the second one went to trial this week. Jurors found him guilty of all counts.
A U.S. Department of Justice employee has been hit with state terrorism charges after allegedly doxxing a federal agent during a border raid.
Federal authorities charged two Alabama residents with trafficking hundreds of firearms after uncovering what officials are calling the largest weapons seizure at the Southwest border—more than 500 guns allegedly bound for a Mexican drug cartel, hidden in false-walled trailers intercepted at the Juarez-Lincoln Port of Entry in Laredo, Texas. Authorities allege the pair intended to smuggle the weapons into Mexico on behalf of a Mexican drug cartel.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas announced the arrest of 78 criminal aliens during a 3-day “Operation Pick-Off” in the Texas border region. Federal agents collaborated with state and local law enforcement to conduct the roundup.
The supreme leader of the Sinaloa Cartel has pleaded guilty to U.S. federal drug charges in connection with leading the most powerful drug cartel in the world. His plea has sparked much speculation in Mexico, where his expected cooperation could implicate some of the country’s highest-ranking political figures.
Callous human smugglers continue to risk lives to move their human cargo from the border region to the interior of Texas. This week, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas filed charges against a Houston man who allegedly packed 40 migrants into a secret, locked compartment in the rear of a box truck.
U.S. prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas announced the unsealing of a federal indictment that accuses Mexican nationals legally living in Houston of bribing top Mexican government officials in order to get contracts with that country’s state-owned oil companym PEMEX.
A Harris County Precinct 4 Deputy Constable arrested a man who reportedly attempted to interfere with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace enforcement operation near Houston on July 9. The man, who is the son of the owner of the business visited by ICE agents, allegedly chased the agents and then struck one of the vehicles as it stopped at a traffic light.
Four Houston residents are now in jail facing charges that they exchanged money to lift U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) immigration jail detainers on people being held at the Harris County Jail. The four charged in the scheme include several employees of a bail bond company and a former ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer.
A joint task force of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials led to the arrest of 16 members of the Venezuelan “Anti-Tren” gang, a spinoff faction of the Tren de Aragua foreign terrorist organization. Officials called it the “largest takedown of suspected Anti-Tren members and associates by the FBI, so far.”
A Houston-area member of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) foreign terrorist organization is now on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. The Venezuelan illegal alien is reportedly the first TdA gang member to be added to this notorious list.
A Mexican national living in the U.S. under the protection of an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) will be spending more than eight years in prison for leading a straw purchasing ring that supplied firearms to cartel members in Mexico.
Federal prosecutors unsealed a 29-count indictment for a drug trafficking scheme after 15 people were arrested in the Southern District of Texas. Those arrested included two illegal aliens from Mexico and Guatemala and a Mexican national with Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) status.
Federal authorities arrested several members of a cartel-connected Houston-based drug ring that allegedly used taco trucks to store and distribute different kinds of drugs. The group reportedly moved large quantities of multiple drugs including heroin, meth, cocaine, mushrooms, pills and marijuana.
A man who entered the country as an asylum seeker will be spending five years in federal prison for his role in a fentanyl trafficking conspiracy responsible for moving thousands of pills. The man had previously requested asylum, claiming “credible fear” of Mexican cartels.
A 42-year-old Corpus Christi resident pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $280,000 from a local steelworkers labor union. Robert Cirilo, former president of the United Steelworkers Local 13-1647 in the Texas Gulf Coast city, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of embezzlement from a labor organization. According to an announcement on Monday by U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei, Cirilo will face sentencing in August.
President Donald Trump’s border-state prosecutors charged more than 855 illegal aliens and U.S. citizens with violations of immigration laws last week. The federal criminal prosecutions illustrate new consequences for human smuggling, illegally crossing the border, or re-entering after removal.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers removed a Mexican national who was convicted of kidnapping on Thursday. The criminal alien has a lengthy criminal history and has been deported eight times.
A man from Honduras pleaded guilty to falsely claiming to be an unaccompanied minor while trying to enter the United States.
A report indicates that authorities in South Texas arrested a Russian mercenary who had crossed the border illegally from Mexico.
The last of six human smugglers pleaded guilty last week to the deaths of two Salvadoran migrants who were beaten to death in a warehouse in Houston in 2006. The two smugglers face up to life in prison following sentencing hearings set for next year.
A former border county prosecutor in Texas will spend more than three years in federal prison for having demanded money from a woman to dismiss misdemeanor charges against her son. New information points to the prosecutor having taken more money than initially believed.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas allege that a contractor for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement used a charter bus to move a large group of illegal migrants north. The defendants allegedly claimed they were transporting legal unaccompanied minors that her company was hired to move.
A former Texas border city mayor pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking conspiracy charges in a plot that allegedly involved his successor, a local school board president, and several others in moving cocaine shipments from South Texas to Houston.
A former Texas peace officer will spend more than ten years in prison for using his position to smuggle drugs and launder money. The former cop tried to claim that he had been doing undercover work while using his police vehicle to move drug loads across state lines, federal prosecutors said.
A federal judge sentenced a 27-year-old Pharr, Texas, resident to eight years in federal prison for his role in a migrant smuggling operation that authorities suspect may have moved thousands of migrants from the border region into the interior of the United States.
Two Mexican nationals who were illegally in the United States are largely responsible for building a human smuggling organization that moved almost 2,500 migrants from Central America into the U.S. The duo laundered almost $2.9 million in profits, federal prosecutors revealed, adding that they often kidnapped migrants for ransom.
A suspected human smuggler from South Texas is facing federal charges for allegedly shooting several times at U.S. Border Patrol agents who had tried to stop him in a brushy area near the border.
For several years, a cell of the Mexican Cartel Jalisco New Generation operated out of Houston, using the city as a hub in their distribution of synthetic drugs and cocaine.
A city councilwoman from a border city in Mexico pleaded guilty to smuggling close to 100 pounds of cocaine in a U.S. federal court. The politician, still listed on her city’s website, is currently facing a possible sentence of up to life in prison.
A federal judge in South Texas sentenced a human smuggler to 48 months in prison after he transported five migrants trapped inside two jet skis. Falfurrias Station Border Patrol agents discovered the migrants during an inspection at a checkpoint in Brooks County.
Four human smugglers whose organization is tied to Mexico’s Gulf Cartel pleaded guilty to their role in two incidents where eight migrants died. The conviction comes when the U.S.-Mexico border continues to draw international headlines due to the record-setting number of migrants crossing the border illegally.
A former officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection will spend more than 13 years in prison for his role in a cocaine smuggling conspiracy.
A former county prosecutor in Starr County, Texas, pleaded guilty to federal extortion charges. The former prosecutor admitted to taking money from a woman to have multiple charges dismissed.
A cadet at a Texas border-area police academy received a sentence of more than four years in prison for supplying a cartel in Mexico with .50 caliber ammunition. Pedro Cruz Almeida, age 22, appeared before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez
A Honduran migrant will spend six and a half years in prison for his third conviction on human smuggling charges. The Honduran man had been smuggling migrants for more than nine years — some of that time while he was under asylum protection.
A U.S. citizen used a fake Mexican ID to get deported by federal authorities to avoid prosecution following a human smuggling incident in December 2021. The now-convicted Texas-based smuggler is believed to have moved hundreds of migrants illegally into the country and funneled large amounts of money to cartel associates in Mexico during a two-year period, prosecutors stated.
A Texas man pleaded guilty to buying a gun for the Gulf Cartel used by gunmen in Mexico during a kidnapping where two U.S. citizens were murdered.
A Texas man pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to luring a teen to Mexico where he and other gunmen kidnapped him and tortured him while demanding ransom from his family. The Texas man also has a long criminal history tying him to a deadly home invasion and numerous robberies.
A security guard at a county park on the Texas border is facing human smuggling charges. His arrest followed an investigation by federal authorities claiming he held a female migrant against her will and demanded money for her release.
