A man who smuggled four Mexican citizens into the United States from Tijuana, then left three of them behind in the Otay Mountains because they couldn’t keep pace, was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison.
Efrain Delgado-Rosales, 35, has been apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol 24 times dating back to 1999, prosecutors said.
“This case serves as an example of the extreme dangers associated with crossing illegally into the United States,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy. “Our office will aggressively prosecute those who smuggle illegal aliens into the United States for financial gain, placing those in their company in grave danger and needlessly cause deaths.”
According to prosecutors, Delgado-Rosales sold the four Mexican citizens brown clothing to wear as camouflage so they would be less visible to U.S. Border Patrol agents as they crossed through the mountains into the United States.
Once at the U.S.-Mexico border fence, Delgado-Rosales left the four men on the Mexico side, where they were robbed.
The Mexican men said their smuggler seemed indifferent about the robbery, making them think he was in on it.
Once across the border and in the Otay Mountains, three out of the four Mexican men couldn’t keep up with Delgado-Rosales’ pace and were left behind.
Delgado-Rosales grudgingly returned to retrieve the men after one of them called the man who continued on with the defendant and begged him to come back, prosecutors said.
After almost a day of hiking through the mountains, the U.S. Border Patrol responded to the men’s location and arrested Delgado-Rosales and the four men.
All four men identified Delgado-Rosales as their guide and explained that they and their families each promised to pay others $5,000 to get them each into the United States, for a total of $20,000.
Prosecutors said the remote area where the men were located is important because Delgado-Rosales was implicated in another smuggling operation in the Otay Mountains in 2014 in which one man died.
–City News Service
