Rosa Astrid Umanzor-Lopez, Human Smuggling, Texas 2023

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Human Smuggling Ring Lured Indians to US

HOUSTON – In a shocking revelation, a Guatemalan woman, Rosa Astrid Umanzor-Lopez, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for conspiracy and human smuggling related to a scheme to smuggle undocumented migrants from India into the United States.

Umanzor-Lopez, 36, was extradited to the United States from Guatemala and later pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to smuggle undocumented migrants into the United States for profit and human smuggling. U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. sentenced Umanzor-Lopez today. She is expected to face deportation proceedings following her release from prison.

According to the investigation, Umanzor-Lopez and her co-conspirators recruited individuals in India who were willing to pay large sums of money to be smuggled into the United States. The smuggling operations used a network of facilitators to transport groups of undocumented migrants from India through South America and Central America and then into the United States by air travel, automobiles, water craft, and foot.

Many of these smuggling events involved illegal entry into the United States via the U.S.-Mexico border near McAllen and Laredo. The investigation was conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and HSI.

HSI agents in McAllen and Houston investigated the case with the assistance of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Alien Smuggling Interdiction Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leo J. Leo III and Casey MacDonald prosecuted the case along with Trial Attorney Ann Marie E. Ursini of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.

The Guatemalan woman’s sentencing marks the latest in a series of convictions related to this human smuggling ring. Three other members of the conspiracy have also been convicted and sentenced, and a fourth remains a fugitive. This case is a stark reminder of the dangers of human smuggling and the importance of international cooperation in combating it.

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