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Texas man gets 6 years for smuggling immigrants across border

By Ray Downs

Oct. 10 (UPI) -- A Texas man was sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison for smuggling undocumented immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said.

Gerardo Javier Carreon, 36, pleaded guilty in July to one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens. In June, he was arrested after law enforcement discovered 50 undocumented immigrants in a semi-tractor trailer he was driving near the border.

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"Those responsible for illegally moving people into and through our country place personal profit ahead of public safety and border protection," Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Folden said in a statement. "They are driven by greed with little regard for the health and well-being of their human cargo, which can be a deadly combination."

Carreon will serve 70 months in federal prison, followed by three years of probation.

Carreon was previously convicted in 2009 of transporting and moving an undocumented alien within the United States for private financial gain, according to KSAT-TV.

Border Patrol agents caught Carreon guiding two undocumented immigrants from Mexico through an area near the border.

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"Upon contact, Carreon freely admitted that he was guiding the two illegal subjects around the checkpoint for monetary gain," a criminal complaint from that arrest stated.

Carreon was also arrested in 2008 for human smuggling but that charge was thrown out.

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