A former member of the National Guard has been convicted of conspiring to smuggle migrants into the nation by a U.S. District Court docket in Texas.
In accordance with a press release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Mario Sandoval started smuggling individuals into the nation in July 2024 after a deployment with the Texas Nationwide Guard as a part of Operation Lone Star.
Through the one-day trial July 21, brokers with ICE’s Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) introduced textual content messages from Sandoval’s telephone by which he expressed needing drivers for journeys from the Rio Grande Valley to locations north of immigration checkpoints. Footage was additionally introduced in the course of the trial that confirmed him at an immigration checkpoint whereas sending texts about “regulation enforcement and Okay-9 presence.”
Investigators allege that Sandoval’s actions had been motivated by cash.
“His actions immediately undermined the very mission he was deployed to help and put his fellow guard members at risk,” Chad Plantz, a particular agent with HSI Houston, mentioned.
Sandoval was discharged from the Texas Nationwide Guard in October 2024. The 27-year-old’s protection argued that there was no conspiracy and that his textual content messages had been taken out of context.
His sentencing is scheduled for October 22, and he faces as much as 10 years in federal jail.
Throughout a press conference July 2, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell mentioned there have been 4,200 Nationwide Guardsmen on state energetic obligation in help of Operation Lone Star in Texas.
In accordance with the Division of Justice, Sandoval’s case is a part of Operation Take Back America. The nationwide initiative is geared in the direction of reaching the “complete elimination of cartels and transnational prison organizations.”