EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Nine alleged members of family-based smuggling organization have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to bring into the United States, harbor and transport migrants for financial gain.
The pleas and sentences already in the books for four of the defendants were announced Monday by New Mexico U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Jason T. Stevens, who is based in El Paso.
Court records show members of the group between Oct. 2021 and April 2023 operated in Luna County, N.M., picking up individuals who illegally came over the U.S. border wall from Mexico, takin them to stash houses and providing transportation to the interior of the country.
The Lopez HSO used highways from Animas, N.M., to Phoenix, Ariz., but also moved migrants to California, Virginia and other states far from the Mexican border, Homeland Security Investigations told Border Report earlier.
The organization used peer-to-peer money transfer apps to facilitate payments to its associates and individuals at the sending and receiving ends of the migrant flow, prosecutors alleged.
The defendants pleading guilty are: Rosa Adriana Lopez Escobar, 43, a.k.a. “Tia Rosa,’ of Phoenix; Deysi Marisela Lopez Ambrosio, 27, of Long Beach, Calif.; Franklin Leonardo Chilel Ramirez, 39, of Phoenix; Junior Vanegas Portillo, 22, of Phoenix; Jose Denilson Lopez Chilel, 26, of Phoenix; Mildred Yanira Lopez Ambrosio, 23, of Long Beach; Jose Gianluca Lopez Perez, 21, of Phoenix; Sebastian Rolando Cortez, 22, of Tempe, Ariz.; and Carlos Chavez Hernandez, 22, of Avondale, Ariz.
Rolando Galindo Lopez Escobar, 47, of Guatemala City, Guatemala, was indicted earlier and identified by federal officials as the alleged leader of the Lopez HSO. He remains a fugitive.
Four of the defendants received sentences after pleading guilty. Lopez Chilel was sentenced to 45 months in prison plus three years’ probation, Vanegas received 37 months and three years’ probation, Cortez got one year’s probation and Chavez got off with time served plus two years’ probation.
The defendants agreed to forfeit vehicles, firearms, ammunition and a small all-terrain vehicle. The case was investigated by federal officials in El Paso, New Mexico, Arizona and California and by members of Joint Task Force Alpha.
JTFA focuses on the human smuggling and human trafficking operations of transnational criminal organizations in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Colombia.
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