A man who coordinated a human smuggling operation that led to an Imperial County crash that killed 13 people was sentenced in San Diego federal court Thursday to 15 years in prison.
Jose Cruz Noguez pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges stemming from the 2021 crash near Holtville, where an SUV carrying the victims crashed into a tractor trailer off state Route 115.
In the early morning hours of March 2, two SUVs drove through a portion of border fence that had been cut open near Calexico, then headed west onto Interstate 8, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
One of the SUVs broke down near Holtville and 19 undocumented migrants were arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents. The other, filled with 25 people, was involved in the fatal wreck, with a dozen victims dying at the crash scene and another who died at a hospital. Several more were injured.
The deceased victims ranged in age from 19 to 53 years old.
The SUV had been modified by removing the passenger seats in order to stuff in more people. Assistant U.S. Attorney C. Seth Askins said the victims were “crammed into that vehicle with no seats, no safety restraints. Stacked one on top of another from the floor to the ceiling of the vehicle like sardines.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Cruz Noguez’s involvement in the smuggling operation included recruiting a driver, collecting payment from the migrants and scouting for law enforcement patterns in the area where the vehicles would travel.
Some time after the crash, Cruz Noguez told another person that he was trying to collect payment from those who survived the crash, according to prosecutors.
“They were product to be delivered,” Askins said. “And if for some reason (if) that particular product didn’t make it, there’s plenty more product waiting.”
Defense attorney Norma Aguilar, who asked for a five-year sentence, said Cruz-Noguez became a smuggler because he had few opportunities in his life for anything other than hard labor and low-wage jobs. At the time, he was trying to help his ailing parents financially, she said. His parents both died while he was in custody following the fatal crash.
At his sentencing hearing, Cruz Noguez said, “I want to apologize to the family members of those who died. I ask for their forgiveness.”
His statement continued, “I’m not the person who caused the accident. I do accept that I was participating with that group. I would have tried anything to save those people, but it was not in my hands.”
Verlyn Cardona survived the crash, but her daughter Yesenia, 23, was killed.
“I close my eyes and I see that day. People dead all around me. My daughter is dead as well,” she told U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo. “It is something I don’t wish for my worst enemy, because losing a child is like losing part of one’s own life.”
Cardona said the people who arranged the trip “never informed us about the way we were going to be transported in the vehicle.”
Another survivor, Rene Zelando, said he was told it was “a sheer miracle” that he survived. Along with ongoing pain from his physical injuries in the crash, Zelando said he still deals with trauma over the memories.
“For me, it’s something very painful. It’s something I don’t want to remember,” he told the judge.
Both Cardona and Zelando said they sought to come to the U.S. in order to flee violence in their home countries.
Bencivengo imposed the maximum possible sentence for Cruz Noguez.
The judge said, “There is absolutely nothing redeeming or humanitarian about this action. These people were treated like cargo. They were jammed into two cars to maximize the profit margin that the traffickers could make by putting as many people as possible into vehicles to get them transported into the United States with no concern about their health and safety. And the worst-case scenario happened here.”
Charges are pending against another alleged smuggler, Froylan Cortez Avalos. He remains a fugitive.
According to the indictment, Cortez Avalos helped plan and prepare for the operation, including working with others to cut open a 10-foot section of border fence in order to allow the SUVs to enter the U.S.
– City News Service
