SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 151 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances.The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California is the fourth-busiest federal district, largely due to a high volume of border-related crimes. This district, encompassing San Diego and Imperial counties, shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. It includes the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world’s busiest land border crossing, connecting San Diego (America’s eighth largest city) and Tijuana (Mexico’s second largest city).In addition to reactive border-related crimes, the Southern District of California also prosecutes a significant number of proactive cases related to terrorism, organized crime, drugs, white-collar fraud, violent crime, cybercrime, human trafficking and national security.
Recent developments in those and other significant areas of prosecution can be found here.A sample of border-related arrests this week: On July 2, Julio Villa-Urzua, a Mexican national, was arrested and charged with Importation of a Controlled Substance. According to a complaint, Customs and Border Protection officers discovered 929 pounds – 28 buckets – of liquid methamphetamine dissolved into the fluid of the passenger-side fuel tank of a semi-truck driven by Villa-Urzua while applying for entry to the U.S. at the Otay Import Cargo Facility Port of Entry.On July 4, Edgar Clemente Gonzalez Huales, a Guatemalan national, was arrested and charged with Transportation of Illegal Aliens. According to a complaint, a Border Patrol agent made a traffic stop of Gonzales Huales’ vehicle in Boulevard. The defendant stopped briefly, ordered two undocumented aliens to exit his car and run, and then sped away in his white BMW sedan.
The defendant was apprehended two days later, on July 6, after agents used a spike strip to disable his vehicle.On July 7, Geronimo Benitez Velazquez, a Mexican national, was arrested and charged with Deported Alien Found in the United States. According to a complaint, U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered the undocumented defendant hiding under a tree approximately 500 yards north of the U.S.-Mexico border, three miles east of the Tecate Port of Entry. He was previously deported in April 2026 from San Diego.The immigration cases were referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO), Customs and Border Protection, U.S.
Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with the support and assistance of state and local law enforcement partners.Indictments and criminal complaints are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.