A member of a notorious human smuggling cartel responsible for sneaking tens of thousands of illegal migrants into the United States was sentenced to federal prison for his crimes.
Gustavo Alaniz-Villa, a 25-year-old Mexican national, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to 42 months in prison for conspiring to smuggle foreign nationals into the country, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Wednesday. Villa was affiliated with the Teteca human smuggling cartel — a transnational criminal organization responsible for smuggling more than 50,000 illegal migrants into the U.S.
“The human smuggling organization that this individual worked for is responsible for smuggling more than 50,000 noncitizens into the United States and has been tied to the death of at least one migrant and the sexual assault of 200 others,” Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston acting Special Agent in Charge Robert Kurtz said. “It’s not uncommon for smuggling organizations to prey on the desperation and vulnerability of the migrants who entrust them with their care by sexually assaulting them or subjecting them to sex trafficking or forced labor.”
“Working closely with our partners, we were able to dismantle this organization and hold this human smuggler accountable to put an end to this vicious cycle of human suffering,” Kurtz continued.
The investigation into the Mexican national began in March 2021 when the Victoria County Sheriff’s Office encountered two vehicles during an alleged human smuggling attempt in the area that resulted in the arrest of several suspected smugglers, according to DHS. Investigators later identified Villa and confirmed he was responsible for smuggling hundreds of illegal migrants into the U.S. for Teteca.
Villa was already in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody for immigration violations at the time an arrest was issued on July 21, 2023, according to DHS. He pled guilty to the charges on Oct. 2, 2023.
Along with smuggling tens of thousands of illegal migrants into the U.S., Teteca is also reportedly linked to the sexual assault of more than 200 migrants and the death of at least one migrant, according to DHS. The federal government’s ongoing investigation into the crime syndicate has resulted in 45 criminal convictions and 47 federal indictments so far.
Illegal immigration soared under the Biden-Harris administration, with fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024 being the worst years in U.S. history for illegal border crossings, according to the latest data from Customs and Border Protection. In the meantime, the crime syndicates helping fuel the crisis have made a fortune, with human smuggling organizations making somewhere between $4 billion to $12 billion per year, according to The Washington Post.
Convictions against human smugglers like the one against Villa are expected to continue in the upcoming Trump administration, with President-elect Donald Trump vowing a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration — including a novel pledge to establish a compensation fund for victims of migrant crime out of funds seized from migrant gangs.
Some Biden administration officials and those who provide migrant services anticipate migrant smugglers to ramp up operations before Trump officially re-enters office, ahead of his expected border crackdown.
Immediately following his three-and-a-half year prison sentence, Villa will also serve three years of supervised release, according to DHS. The investigation that led to his conviction and sentence was conducted by HSI, Border Patrol, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and numerous local sheriff’s offices.
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