Zachery Steven Blizzard Jailed for Smuggling Migrants in Wooden Boxes

LAREDO, Texas — Zachery Steven Blizzard, a 27-year-old from Kingsport, Tennessee, is headed to federal prison after orchestrating a deadly human smuggling operation that packed undocumented migrants into sealed wooden boxes bolted inside a work van.

On June 15, 2017, Blizzard directed three undocumented aliens — including one minor — to crawl into two custom-built wooden compartments in the back of his white 2008 Chevrolet work van. The scheme unraveled when U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped the vehicle at a checkpoint 15 miles west of Laredo on Highway 59. Agents found the migrants crammed inside, trapped in suffocating conditions.

U.S. District Judge Hilda G. Tagle handed down a 48-month prison sentence on Monday, followed by three years of supervised release. Blizzard had pleaded guilty on September 5, 2017, to charges related to transporting undocumented aliens under life-threatening circumstances.

Blizzard is the latest in a string of eight defendants caught since April 2017 using nearly identical methods — welding or screwing shut wooden enclosures inside vehicles, often with internal temperatures soaring past 100 degrees. The DOJ described the smuggling tactic as increasingly brazen and inhumane.

Other convictions include Ricky Lee Parker, 51, of Calhoun, Georgia, sentenced yesterday to 24 months for smuggling eight dehydrated, sweating migrants. Jason Allen North, 39, of Ashland, Kentucky, and Allan Ray Collins, 32, of Isom, Kentucky, each received 24 months. Richard Jordan Lamar Defoor, 32, and Donna Lynn Williams, 46, both from Calhoun, Georgia, were sentenced to 18 months. Sean Michael McKinney, 46, of Steger, Illinois, got 30 months for smuggling between five and ten people in the same manner.

Travis Dean McKelroy, 48, of San Antonio, pleaded guilty last week and awaits sentencing. The cases were investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations with support from U.S. Border Patrol. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa M. Ezra prosecuted all cases.