The following information was provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, Western District of Texas.
A Mexican national with legal permanent resident status was sentenced in a federal court in Del Rio to 195 months in prison for conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy, announced U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas.
According to court documents, Armando Garcia-Martinez, also known as “Leche,” “El Compadre” and “Mando,” 43, was a recruiter for the alien smuggling organization that transported a family of illegal aliens from San Antonio to Austin in August 2023.
In that event, the family, consisting of a man, a pregnant woman and their 7-year-old child, were taken hostage by the ASO. Defendants sexually assaulted the pregnant woman, threatened to kill the woman’s 7-year-old boy if payments were not made, and also threatened to sell the woman’s unborn baby if they did not get the money they sought. On July 9, 2023, a relative paid at least $1,000 to the ASO due to the threats made toward the family. Still, the ASO continued to demand payment to different accounts as a condition for the release of the aliens.
Beyond his involvement in this particular smuggling event, Garcia-Martinez’s role in the ASO was to get the illegal aliens to drivers in Eagle Pass who would smuggle the aliens to San Antonio or Austin. On average, Garcia coordinated two to three trips per week for co-defendants Juan Antonio Flores and Pedro Ruiz Gonzalez. Generally, Garcia-Martinez picked up the illegal aliens belonging to co-defendant Anthony Ballones Jr. near the train tracks in Eagle Pass and took them to co-defendants Ambar Obregon and Tomas Estrada-Torres.
Garcia-Martinez was indicted on April 24, 2024, and arrested May 31. He pleaded guilty on Nov. 18, 2024.
On Feb. 11, co-defendant Flores was sentenced to 212 months for his role in the case. Co-defendants Edwin Alfredo Barrientos-Mateo and Nelson Abilio Castro-Zelaya were sentenced to 360 months and 180 months in federal prison, respectively. Estrada-Torres was sentenced to 151 months, and Rodolfo Daniel De Hoyos was sentenced to 170 months. Gonzalez, Obregon and Ballones have pleaded guilty and are pending sentencing. Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses presides over the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Miner prosecuted the case.
This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.
Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full force of United States law enforcement toward identifying, investigating and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within U.S. borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.
HSTF comprises agents and officers from the FBI, ICE HSI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Department of Transportation, IRS Criminal Investigation, Texas Department of Public Safety, as well as local police departments and sheriff’s offices. The prosecution is led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
