U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas

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.

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.

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 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.

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 U.S. federal court sentenced a Salvadoran man to nearly four years in prison for his role in helping his wife and her boyfriend smuggle weapons and ammunition into Mexico. In one of the smuggling attempts, the group tried to send more than 13,000 rounds of ammunition across the Texas-Mexico.

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.