Del Rio Jury Convicts Three Members of Smuggling Organization in Transporting Resulting in Death Case: Ring Took In Over $5 Million
A federal jury in Del Rio, Texas, on October 20 convicted three members of the Alejandro Santoyo-Guzman alien smuggling organization, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, as reported by Border Report. Israel Ramirez-Perez, Ricardo Rojas Vazquez and David Christopher Ewell were convicted of conspiring to transport aliens resulting in death, transporting aliens resulting in death, and conspiracy to transport aliens placing lives in jeopardy. Ramirez-Perez and Rojas Vazquez were also convicted of transporting aliens placing lives in jeopardy.
Prosecutors said the three men helped run the organization, which made more than $5 million, even after Santoyo-Guzman was imprisoned in Oklahoma. Rojas Vazquez led the organization's operations in Mexico and maintained a "50/50 partnership" with Santoyo-Guzman. Ramirez-Perez served as the organization's enforcer and was responsible, prosecutors said, for a kidnapping, an attempted murder and a murder.
According to the release, Rojas Vazquez ordered the murder of Edgar Ponce Campos, whom Ramirez-Perez shot several times. Ramirez-Perez then tried unsuccessfully to dissolve the body in acid; when that failed, he put the body in a vehicle, poured gasoline on it and set it on fire, then shot at the burning car and filmed it, sharing the video with Santoyo-Guzman. Ewell worked as a smuggling facilitator with his significant other, Marcelina Truxillo-Logan, and the couple communicated with co-defendant Jessica Castillo-Guzman, who handled the organization's cash flow.
"Alien Smuggling Organizations care nothing about the lives, hopes and dreams of those they smuggle," said U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas. "They only care about their money. Even once aliens arrive in the U.S., alien smuggling organizations will often extort and terrorize the aliens and their families until additional fees are paid."
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：德州 Del Rio 市政大楼（资料图）。JherreraCODR 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，取自维基共享资源。Photo: The Municipal Building in Del Rio, Texas (file photo). JherreraCODR, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
