Release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas
SAN ANTONIO — Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Texas filed 500 new immigration and immigration-related criminal cases from Aug. 28 through Sept. 10, announced U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons.
Of those new cases, 449 were split between the district’s Del Rio and El Paso offices. Charges were brought against alien smugglers and illegal aliens with past convictions for child sex crimes, numerous DWIs, violent crimes, thefts and numerous prior removals.
Among the new cases, two U.S. citizens are charged with bringing in and harboring aliens after they were arrested Sept. 4 near Fort Hancock.
A U.S. Border Patrol camera operator observed six individuals walking north from the direction of the Rio Grande in an area known to be utilized by transnational criminal organizations for the illegal entry and rapid pickup of smuggled aliens.
Around the same time and in the same remote area, according to a criminal complaint, another Border Patrol agent encountered a vehicle traveling south.
The agent stopped the vehicle and inquired about the occupants’ destination, redirecting them to the gas station they claimed to be looking for, located in the opposite direction.
Soon after that encounter, another agent conducted an investigatory stop on the vehicle while it was traveling north toward Interstate 10.
The criminal complaint alleges that during the investigatory stop, the Border Patrol camera operator observed the group of six individuals begin running south.
The complaint alleges that the two vehicle occupants, identified as George Soledad-Lucero and Sarah Nicole Olivas, agreed to be transported to the Fort Hancock Border Patrol Station for questioning about their whereabouts that morning.
It further alleges that while Soledad-Lucero provided conflicting statements, Olivas stated the two were driving en route to pick up illegal aliens and expected to be paid $2,000.
Soledad-Lucero allegedly recruited Olivas for the use of her vehicle, and the two communicated through Instagram.
An illegal alien from Mexico was charged with illegal re-entry after being arrested approximately 10 miles west of the Tornillo Port of Entry.
Jorge Herrera-Vargas was recently deported from the United States for the ninth time July 16. In June, he was convicted of his third DUI.
Christian Ernesto-Lopez, also an illegal alien from Mexico, was found approximately four miles west of the Fort Hancock Port of Entry after being removed from the United States on Aug. 3 through Jacksonville, Florida.
In April 2025, Ernesto-Lopez was convicted of assault by strangulation and assault with a deadly weapon in Raleigh, North Carolina.
His criminal record also includes two convictions for domestic violence, including one for assaulting a pregnant woman.
Santos Gomez-Delacruz, an illegal alien from Guatemala, was found approximately 20 miles east of the Fort Hancock Port of Entry after being removed for the seventh time in March. He now faces an illegal re-entry charge.
In Del Rio, Border Patrol agents arrested Johan Alexander Moncada-Narvaez, an illegal alien from Venezuela, and charged him with illegal re-entry.
Moncada-Narvaez was deported for the first time in August. In July, he was convicted of engaging in prostitution with a 14- to 15-year-old and engaging in electronic communication relating to or describing sexual conduct with a child.
For those two convictions in Clay County, Minnesota, Moncada-Narvaez was sentenced to five years of probation.
Iden Escobar-Loaiza, an illegal alien from Guatemala, was arrested and charged with illegal re-entry.
In 2023, he was convicted of his third DUI. Escobar-Loaiza has also been convicted of inflicting corporal injury and disorderly intoxication.
Illegal alien from Mexico Adrian Missael Gonzalez was also charged with illegal re-entry in Del Rio.
Gonzalez has been removed from the United States twice before and has a criminal record that includes two convictions for burglary of a vehicle, vehicle theft and property theft.
Jorvin Joseph Ramos-Orellana, an illegal alien from Honduras, was arrested in Eagle Pass and charged with illegal re-entry.
Ramos-Orellana was deported for the first time in February after being convicted in 2025 of terroristic threats and acts, reckless conduct and aggravated assault.
Oscar Ernesto Romero-Aravelo, an illegal alien from El Salvador who has been deported four times, was arrested in Eagle Pass. His criminal record contains three DUI convictions.
These cases were referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with additional assistance from state and local law enforcement partners.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas comprises 68 counties located in the central and western areas of Texas, encompasses nearly 93,000 square miles and serves an estimated population of 7.6 million people.
The district includes three of the five largest cities in Texas—San Antonio, Austin and El Paso—and shares 660 miles of border with Mexico.
Indictments and criminal complaints are merely allegations, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
These 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 communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.
