U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas - Page 2

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 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 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.

The son of the ultimate leader of the Gulf Cartel will spend more than eight years in a U.S. prison for coordinating the shipment of weapons into Mexico for the criminal organization once led by his father. He was on supervised release at the time of his arrest. The narco-heir has a long history of prior convictions on weapons charges and is currently facing multiple charges in a Texas court for a violent stabbing in the border city of Brownsville.

A Texas man awaits sentencing after federal jurors found him guilty of making explosive devices in his home.

A South Texas man will spend five years in prison for smuggling 31 migrants inside a frigid trailer. The smuggler hid the migrants inside a refrigerated trailer behind a load of broccoli bound for Florida.

A Texas border man with links to Mexico’s Gulf Cartel will spend 20 years in prison for kidnapping two migrants and forcing their relatives to pay a ransom.

A Texas newspaper wrongly claimed a local attorney leaked the name of a government informant. That informant was later murdered in 2007 by his own criminal organization. However, the allegations published by the publication are erroneous, federal law enforcement officials

A former Mexican police officer will spend 30 years in prison for having a series of videos and photographs where he sexually assaulted a young girl. Authorities in the U.S. discovered the videos inside a cell phone when the police officer tried to cross into Texas through a port of entry.

A federal court in South Texas sentenced a member of the Mexican Mafia gang to 33 months in prison for his role in a human smuggling scheme. The conviction came from a May 2021 incident where Rafael Alberto Cazarez, Jr. drove 54 migrants trapped inside a tank.

A Honduran man faces federal charges in South Texas for allegedly making a false familial claim to get into the United States.

A federal court in Laredo, Texas, sentenced a local man to more than nine years in prison for packing 35 migrants into a hot tractor-trailer in June 2019. Many of the migrants lost consciousness from the heat and lack of oxygen in the sealed trailer.

HOUSTON, Texas — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas filed criminal charges against five “non-citizens of the United States” for their alleged roles in a human smuggling stash house operation. The alleged smugglers reportedly extorted the families of migrants being held in a house in southwest Houston.

The Biden Administration took control of a Texas rancher’s border land on Wednesday. The action followed a victory by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas against the family which has owned the land since 1760.

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas filed two federal charges against the criminal alien accused of killing Houston Police Sergeant Howard Preston. The charges will help ensure the accused killer stays behind bars.

A former Louisiana narcotics detective faces federal drug trafficking charges following a sting operation where authorities found eight kilos of cocaine. The former investigator previously served one year and nine months in prison on separate drug charges while being assigned to a federal task force with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Customs and Border Protection officers in Laredo, Texas, seized nearly 500 pounds of methamphetamine in two incidents at separate ports of entry on August 10. Following the seizure of the nearly $10 million in drugs, U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick called the region “ground zero” for meth smuggling.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Customs and Border Protection officers seized nearly 360 pounds of methamphetamine during three failed drug smuggling attempts at South Texas border crossings. The seizures took nearly $8 million in drugs out of the hands of cartel-connected smugglers.

A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas handed down prison sentences to three men involved in human smuggling and stash house operations. The trio smuggled more than 1,000 people in less than a year into Texas under extremely dangerous conditions.

A Bangladeshi national pleaded guilty in a federal court in Laredo, Texas, on Friday to his role in a conspiracy to smuggle hundreds of his fellow countrymen into the United States. Prosecutors called the smuggling operation a “national security risk.”

Two Texas men are charged in a federal court for an alleged nationwide neo-Nazi conspiracy that targeted journalists and public officials with threats and intimidation. The conspirators allegedly engaged in “swatting” calls against journalists, particularly those who are Jewish or of color, and other high-level public officials.

A federal judge in South Texas sentenced two men to federal prison for selling guns to an undercover investigator. The undercover agent told the men the money for the guns, including machine guns, came from Mexico.

Border Patrol union officials say multiple Laredo Sector agents were injured after being assaulted by a group of eight suspects who had just crossed the border from Mexico on New Year’s Day.

A migrant who illegally overstayed an immigration visa received two ten-year prison sentences from a federal court for possession of child pornography. Federal investigators found pornographic images involving children as young a three-years-old on his computers.

Prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas arrested a Bangladeshi national and charged him with smuggling fellow countrymen to the U.S. The arrest follows a guilty plea last week from one of his co-conspirators.

A Bangladeshi national pleaded guilty in a Texas federal court Tuesday to smuggling numerous fellow countrymen into the United States. The smuggling network moved the Bangladeshi nationals, mostly men between the ages of 18-35, to South America where they made their way through Central America and Mexico.

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas charged three Laredo men with allegedly crashing their vehicles while smuggling migrants to avoid arrest. Officials report a total of 29 migrants smuggled in the three pursuits which resulted in serious crashes.

More than 100 people are now facing federal charges in connection with an alleged sham marriage scheme. Investigators arrested dozens named in a 206-count indictment.

HOUSTON, Texas — A federal court handed down a 30-year prison sentence to a man convicted on charges of child sex trafficking and related crimes. The convictions follows his arrest in 2012 following his return from London.

Federal authorities filed charges against a member of the Texas National Guard for allegedly stealing drugs seized at a border crossing in Laredo, Texas. The guardsman was deployed under Operation Guardian Support at the time of the alleged crime.

Federal courtrooms in border regions are exhibiting standing-room-only situations following the implementation of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions demand for zero tolerance of illegal crossings. The policy is packing dockets with recently arrested illegal immigrants, many of whom are parents separated from their children under new enforcement actions.

Border Patrol officials say that a U.S. citizen arrested for human smuggling was released without consequences. Authorities released the suspect after prosecutors failed to file charges because the alleged human smuggler is a juvenile.

A federal judge sentenced a 27-year-old Tennessee man to federal prison for smuggling three illegal immigrants. The man put his “human cargo” in circumstances that involved life-threatening conditions by packing them inside wooden crates.

A federal judge in Laredo, Texas, sentenced three human smugglers to prison for their role in killing a migrant in a crash while fleeing Border Patrol agents.