Rosa Astrid Umanzor-Lopez, Human Smuggling, Texas 2014

A Guatemalan woman 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.

Rosa Astrid 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 in the Southern District of Texas.

According to court documents, 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. They 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.

The smuggling operations involved illegal entry into the United States via the U.S.-Mexico border near McAllen and Laredo, Texas. Three other members of the conspiracy have also been convicted and sentenced, and a fourth remains a fugitive.

Umanzor-Lopez was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. of the Southern District of Texas and is expected to face deportation proceedings following her release from prison.

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. Umanzor-Lopez is expected to serve 36 months in prison for conspiracy and human smuggling.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/foreign-national-sentenced-36-months-prison-human-smuggling