Elizabeth Miranda Lozano Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Non-U.S. Citizens Resulting in Migrant’s Death, Dallas TX, 2021

EL PASO, Texas – A Dallas woman pleaded guilty in a federal court in El Paso Wednesday to charges in connection to her role as a stash house operator and coordinator of a human smuggling organization operating in far west Texas.

Elizabeth Miranda Lozano, 39, joined and actively participated in an ongoing conspiracy to bring in, transport, and harbor undocumented immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico through Hudspeth County from on or about November 2019 through on or about August 2021.

According to court documents, Lozano began working for the human smuggling organization as a transport driver, picking up noncitizens near Sierra Blanca and delivering them to stash houses in the Dallas area, as well as in the Phoenix, Arizona area. In 2020, she had graduated to running stash houses in the Dallas area for the organization.

In May 2020, a co-conspirator of Lozano’s guided a group of undocumented individuals on a two-to-three-day trek to a pickup location east of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Sierra Blanca Checkpoint. Another co-conspirator, who Lozano had trained, was assigned as the pickup driver, but before the group reached the pickup location, one of the undocumented individuals began to struggle and subsequently died. The group abandoned the deceased migrant along with his son, who was eventually found by USBP agents.

Lozano pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bring in aliens resulting in death and faces a maximum sentence up to life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza of the Western District of Texas made the announcement. Homeland Security Investigations, USBP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patricia Acosta and Jose Luis Acosta are prosecuting the case. This case was supported by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA). JTFA was created by the Attorney General in June 2021 in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to strengthen the Department’s overall efforts to combat these crimes based on the rise in prolific and dangerous smuggling from and through Central America and impacting our border communities. JTFA’s goal is to disrupt and dismantle those human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, with a focus on networks that endanger, abuse or exploit migrants, present national security risks, or engage in other types of transnational organized crime.