A Phoenix-area man was sentenced to six years in prison last month after pleading guilty to conspiracy to transport people into the United States for profit.
Jesus Alexandro Sanchez-Armenta, 23, was sentenced to 72 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa on July 17, said Zach Stoebe, a Justice Department spokesman. Following his prison term, Sanchez-Armenta has five years probation.
According to court records, Sanchez-Armenta recruited and worked with at least four other
people — named in court records as Reggie Arnez Ward, Alexandra Yolanda Olvera, Clarissa Lizbeth
Gutierrez and Miguel Angel Hernandez — to smuggle people into the U.S. While the others drove people into the country — attempting in one incident to use night-vision goggles to flee from Border Patrol agents — Sanchez-Armenta helped organize their trips and paid for gas.
Biden administration officials have spent the last three years charging after human smuggling networks, attempting to “dismantle and disrupt” the groups moving people through Southern Arizona.
The group used Snapchat and other social
media accounts to pick up people from the deserts of Southern Arizona
and transport them further into the U.S. during incidents in 2022 and 2023. During their efforts, Sanchez-Armenta provided the group GPS coordinates, directing them pick up spots, and then gave them
routes “designed to circumvent detection by law enforcement,” he said in
a July plea agreement.
A federal grand jury indicted the five, charging them with conspiracy in February 2023, and federal agents caught up with Sanchez-Armenta several months later in Yuma.
Ward pleaded guilty to transporting people, admitting he worked with Sanchez-Armenta to transport people who also provided him gas money. In his plea agreement, he said he drove a pickup truck with four people to the Border Patrol checkpoint on State Route 86. After entering the checkpoint, Ward said he speed away, fleeing from agents. He said he stopped, had the four migrants get out of the vehicle and attempted to escape from agents by turning off his headlights and used night-vision goggles to see.
Ward was sentenced to 27 months in prison and three years probation.
Gutierrez admitted she was in the front seat of a Honda Pilot when her
and the driver attempted to drive through
the Otay Mesa Port of Entry with a woman in the truck during a September 2022 incident. She received a sentenced of time served.
Olvera admitted she connected with Sanchez-Armenta, or Mono, through WhatsApp and he gave her instructions to pick up and transport people in the country without authorization in August 2022.
Similarly, Hernandez was recruited via WhatsApp and Sanchez-Armenta — who went by several names including Chuy, Ww and El-19 — directed him to pick up people during an incident in February 2023.
Olvera and Hernandez each received probation O lvera was given three years probation, while Hernandez received two years probation.
Special agents with Homeland Security Investigations’ office in Casa Grande, along with Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents investigated the case, said Zach J. Stoebe, a Justice Department spokesman. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart Zander, District of Arizona, Phoenix, handled the prosecution.