Cesar David Martinez-Gonzalez, Migrant Smuggling, Pennsylvania 2025

A Chester, Pennsylvania man has pleaded guilty to his role in a migrant smuggling conspiracy that saw dozens of South Americans enter the United States illegally.

Cesar David Martinez-Gonzalez, 39, entered a guilty plea before United States District Court Judge Gerald A. McHugh in connection with the conspiracy to smuggle migrants for personal financial gain.

The object of the conspiracy was to illegally smuggle citizens of South American countries into the United States across the U.S.-Mexico border, and to encourage and induce them to enter the United States.

Martinez-Gonzalez fronted money to “coyotes” in Mexico who guided migrants across the Rio Grande and through holes in the U.S.-Mexico border wall, and provided them with information to give to Customs and Border Protection so that they could be released—on parole—to his residences.

Once the migrants arrived in the United States, Martinez-Gonzalez would transport them to houses in and around Chester, Pennsylvania, where he would impose upon them thousands of dollars in “debts” owed to him. These debts were well in excess of what it cost to get the individuals to Chester and house them there.

“Martinez-Gonzalez took advantage of vulnerable migrants for his own financial benefit,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero. “He induced them to come to the United States, then imposed thousands of dollars of so-called ‘debts,’ which they had to repay through weeks or months of labor.”

Martinez-Gonzalez is scheduled to be sentenced on March 18, 2025, and faces a maximum possible sentence of 120 years in prison.

The case was investigated by the FBI, HSI, and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Sara A. Solow, Louis D. Lappen, Eileen Castilla Geiger, and J. Andrew Jenemann.