South Texas border resident sentenced to 5 years for human smuggling ring
Migrants were apprehended in a locked tractor trailer near Encinal, Texas, about 40 miles from the border of Laredo. (Photo Courtesy Border Patrol Laredo Sector)
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PHARR, Texas (Border Report) — A South Texas resident from the border town of Pharr was sentenced to five years in federal prison for smuggling “thousands” of undocumented migrants from Mexico and trafficking a teen girl for sex, U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani announced Friday.
Isaac Jake Gonzalez, 21, must serve five years in prison and three years supervised release, U.S. District Judge David Morales of Corpus Christi ruled.
Gonzalez plead guilty on March 30, 2023, on three counts of bringing in and harboring aliens, according to federal court documents.
Authorities said in court that Gonzalez and his brother-in-law Anthony Williams were arrested for a smuggling ring that brought in “thousands of undocumented’ migrants in tractor-trailers across the border from Mexico into South Texas since the summer of 2021.
Officials say Gonzalez and Williams coordinated to recruit truck drivers.
Gonzalez was responsible for smuggling 115 undocumented migrants, Hamdani said.
Three other co-conspirators also were arrested on similar charges in connection with the smuggling ring, court documents show.
Williams, 27, also from Pharr, was previously sentenced to eight years in federal prison.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
