Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts in Houston, Texas

June 25, 2007

STARR COUNTY COUPLE CONVICTED OF OPERATING LARGE SCALE ALIEN SMUGGLING ORGANIZATION SENTENCED TO PRISON

[MCALLEN, TX] – U. S. District Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa has sentenced two Mexican nationals, Hortencia Sanchez-Rodriguez (“Sanchez”) and Emilio Anguiano-Santoyo (“Anguiano”), to prison for operating a large scale operation responsible for smuggling hundreds of illegal aliens from Roma, TX to Houston, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.

At a sentencing hearing on Friday, June 22, 2007, Judge Hinojosa ordered Hortencia Sanchez, 38, and Emilio Anguiano, 37, to serve 60 and 63 months in prison, respectively. Both defendants are residents of Roma, TX.

The investigation which lead to the arrest of Sanchez and Anguiano produced evidence through recorded telephone conversations that proved that from March 2004 through their arrest in September 2005, they were the leaders of a smuggling organization responsible for smuggling no less that 250 illegal aliens from Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, Mexico into the United States at Roma, TX and arranging their transportation to Houston. The defendants hired drivers to transport the aliens to the Border Patrol checkpoint where walkers waited to guide the aliens around the checkpoint. The court found that the manner of transport arranged by these defendants created a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to the illegal aliens and consider that factor in determining the final sentence. During the course of the investigation into this organization, agents intercepted several loads of aliens and apprehended 36.

Both defendants have been in federal custody since their arrest in September 2005 and will remain in federal custody to serve their sentence.

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