Mexican national sentenced to prison in Seattle over human smuggling scheme 🇺🇸🇨🇦

Mexican national sentenced to prison in Seattle over human smuggling scheme using freight trains to transport illegal immigrants across US-Canada border.

PM:

A federal judge in Seattle sentenced a Mexican national to prison on Monday for his role in an “extremely dangerous” human smuggling scheme, which involved using freight trains to smuggle illegal migrants through the US-Canada border. Jesus Ortiz-Plata, 46, of Mexico, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. The defendant pleaded guilty in December to felony conspiracy to transport certain aliens for profit, court records show.

Ortiz-Plata had been living in Independence, Oregon, and was working on a farm at the time of his arrest on May 23, 2024. He will likely be deported from the United States back to Mexico, where he was born, upon the completion of his prison sentence. US District Court Judge James Robart expressed little sympathy for the defendant during sentencing, stating that Ortiz-Plata’s “extensive career” as a human smuggler demonstrated a “callous” disdain for human life, which may have resulted in grave bodily injury or death.

In July 2023, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the United States Border Patrol (USBP) began investigating a human smuggling organization that was suspected of smuggling noncitizens into the United States through the US-Canada border, with the route running from Vancouver, BC, to Whatcom County, Washington. The noncitizens were smuggled via freight trains. Ortiz-Plata’s role in the illicit operation was to transport noncitizens after they unlawfully arrived in the US. He used the moniker “Chuy” to communicate with the noncitizens before and after their arrival, and charged up to $8,000 to transport each individual, according to court documents. read more