A Mexican national extradited to the United States from Mexico in 2023 pleaded guilty Wednesday to leading a human smuggling conspiracy operating in Mexicali on the U.S.-Mexico border for several years, officials stated.
According to court documents, Ofelia Hernandez-Salas, 63, led a human smuggling operation that brought over 100 migrants into the United States.
The officials stated that migrants came from or traveled through countries including Bangladesh, Yemen, Pakistan, Eritrea, India, the UAE, Uzbekistan, Russia, Egypt, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.
Hernandez-Salas’ organization charged the migrants as much as tens of thousands of dollars to make the journey and directed the migrants where to illegally cross the border into the United States.
The organization provided migrants with a ladder to climb over the border fence.
Hernandez-Salas and co-conspirators also robbed the migrants of money and personal belongings while armed with guns and knives.
“Human smugglers are ruthless — they lie to, steal from, and gravely endanger their victims, wreaking death and devastation across our region,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will continue to work with our federal and international partners to help dismantle human smuggling operations and bring perpetrators to justice.”
Hernandez-Salas pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bring an alien to the United States and three substantive counts of bringing an alien to the United States for commercial benefit or private financial gain.
She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 10. She faces up to 15 years in prison.
In June 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed corresponding sanctions on the Hernandez-Salas transnational criminal organization.
Hernandez-Salas and co-defendant Raul Saucedo-Huipio, 50, were arrested by Mexican authorities at the request of the United States in March 2023.
Saucedo-Huipio remains in custody in Mexico.