HOUSTON – In support of Operation Take Back America, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern District of Texas has filed another 181 cases in immigration and border security-related matters from July 3-9. The cases include charges against 21 people allegedly involved in human smuggling. A total of 33 criminal complaints were filed for illegal entry, while another 129 people face charges of felony reentry after prior removal.
Most of those individuals have prior felonies related to narcotics, violent crime, immigration offenses, and more. The remaining cases charged this week involve other immigration crimes.As part of these new matters, two illegal aliens from Mexico have been charged with unlawfully reentering the country. Authorities had just removed Gilberto Cuenca-Pedroza on May 6 but found him again in the United States near La Joya, Texas. Wilson Perez-Landeros had also been previously removed, but law enforcement discovered him near Rio Grande City, according to the criminal complaint.
The charges further allege Cuenca-Pedroza and Perez-Landeros both have prior narcotics convictions, distribution of heroin and meth, respectively. If convicted of illegally reentering the United States without authorization, both face up to 20 years in federal prison. In addition to these new cases, a federal jury in Corpus Christi convicted a 46-year-old Honduran national of illegally reentering the United States after a one-day trial and 15 minutes of deliberation. Carlos Lopez-Mejia fled on foot following a traffic stop before authorities apprehended him.
The jury heard evidence of his two prior removals in 2001 and 2019.In Laredo, Guatemalan human smugglers Agapito Jorge Ventura and Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino pleaded guilty in a scheme tied to a tractor-trailer crash that killed more than 50 people and injured over 100 more. They conspired with others to transport illegal aliens, including unaccompanied minors, from Guatemala through Mexico to the United States. They recruited individuals, collected payment, and arranged travel via foot and various other forms of transportation. In some cases, they provided scripted language if authorities apprehended them.
Both face up to life in prison at the time of their sentencing.Also of note was the sentencing of Mexican national Ivan Garcia-Lopez in Houston. The court considered the dangerousness of his other crimes and lack of respect for the law before imposing the 60-month sentence. Garcia-Lopez has previous convictions for illegal reentry, engaging in organized crime, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The cases are referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, ICE - Enforcement and Removal Operations, Border Patrol, Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, U.S.
Marshals Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives with additional assistance from state and local law enforcement partners.The cases are part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.Under current leadership, public safety and a secure border are the top priorities for the Southern District. Enhanced enforcement both at the border and in the interior of the district have yielded aliens engaged in unlawful activity or with serious criminal histories, including convictions for human trafficking, sexual assault, and violence against children. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas remains one of the busiest in the nation.
It represents 43 counties and more than 10 million people covering 44,000 square miles. Assistant U.S. Attorneys from all seven divisions including Houston, Galveston, Victoria, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen, and Laredo work directly with our law enforcement partners on the federal, state, and local levels to prosecute the suspected offenders of these and other federal crimes.An indictment or criminal complaint is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.