Smuggling ring leaders who drilled people into boxes sentenced

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Four men have been sent to prison for running a smuggling conspiracy that forced 3,000 immigrants into "inhumane" positions, U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani announced.

Mission residents Diego Flores, 29, Gerardo Villarreal, 34, and Gilberto Rios, 35, all previously pleaded guilty along with Antonio Cuevas-Lozano, 46, of Mexico, to conspiracy to transport or harbor undocumented individuals within the United States.

The men moved thousands of immigrants in groups of at least 70. A release from the U.S. Attorney's Office stated the immigrants were placed inside containers which were drilled closed from the outside.

The men would do this while controlling the illegals with firearms and loading them onto trailers to transport them on the highway in the Texas heat.

Flores was the leader of the smuggling organization. He was previously convicted for smuggling. The court also considered how the organization utilized multiple firearms to threaten the individuals.

Judge Crane noted the complete disregard for the safety of the undocumented people the organization exhibited, expressing that the means and methods of transportation were “inhumane.”

The planning for the conspiracy took place at a ranch property in Mission, where the four men built the compartments in which to transport undocumented individuals.

"On every occasion, the conspirators instructed the aliens to get inside and drilled the containers closed, offering them no means of escape," the release stated.

The four conspirators would then drive the trailers loaded with containers to meet the “hot shot” driver who would further transport the trailer north.

Beginning in April 2022, Flores hired “hot shot” drivers to transport containers, including wooden boxes, sheds and hay bales on flat-bed trailers further north. This was an important part of the scheme because it minimized the chances of exposing the smuggling organization leaders since the drivers were unaware of what they were transporting.

On Sept. 5, 2023, authorities executed a search warrant on the ranch property and recovered three firearms.

Law enforcement discovered Villarreal had a pistol in his possession during his arrest. As a convicted felon, federal law prohibits him from possessing firearms or ammunition.

On April 26, 2022, 40 undocumented individuals within wooden boxes were found by law enforcement. Authorities also found 69 people in compartments in the roofs of two sheds strapped onto flat-bed trailers on July 19, 2023.

Another interception occurred Aug. 18, 2023, when law enforcement located a load of 28 undocumented people hidden in a compartment surrounded by hay bales. Thirty six more were found hidden within wooden crates loaded on a trailer 11 days later. On Sept. 1, 2023, law enforcement found eight people hidden in a compartment underneath a trailer, between it and the road.

On each occasion, authorities spoke to those who were trapped in the crates and they began to piece together the root of the large-scale smuggling organization.

“Human smugglers ply their trade praying on the vulnerable,” said Hamdani. “These smugglers cramped dozens of migrants into wooden crates and then bolted those crates shut, leaving the migrants to the mercy of South Texas’s brutal heat. Such conduct was not just predatory; it also demonstrated a total disregard for the value of human life. Today’s sentences reflect how my office will not rest until we disrupt and dismantle the deadly human smuggling operations that cause so much sorrow along the Southwest border.”

Flores has been ordered to serve 13 years in federal prison. Villarreal received one year and six months for the smuggling conspiracy and almost six years for the firearms conviction to be served concurrently, along with two years of a supervised release violation to be served consecutively for a total 12 year sentence.

Rios and Cuevas-Lozano were sentenced to five and two years, respectively. Flores, Rios and Villarreal must also serve three years of supervised release, while Cuevos-Lozano is expected to be deported following his imprisonment.