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2mo ago

San Antonio Smuggler Sentenced to 10 Years for Concealing 25 Migrants in Tanker Trailer

The sentence underscores federal efforts to dismantle cartel-linked routes that hide migrants in life-threatening conditions.

U.S. Border Patrol agents check vehicles at the Eagle Pass/Carrizo Springs checkpoint near Eagle Pass in this file photo. A San Antonio man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for smuggling 25 undocumented migrants into the country using a tanker trailer.
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Overview

  • On July 1, a Del Rio federal court sentenced 44-year-old Richard Rindeikis to 120 months in prison after he pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens.
  • Border Patrol agents at a Carrizo Springs checkpoint discovered 25 migrants from Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico locked inside the closed hatches of a tanker trailer during a November 18 inspection.
  • Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Border Patrol led the probe, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Duarte conducted the federal prosecution.
  • U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons praised Border Patrol’s intervention for preventing a potential tragedy, and ICE HSI Special Agent Craig Larrabee denounced the concealment tactic as inhumane.
  • The conviction advances Operation Take Back America’s strategy by engaging OCDETF and Project Safe Neighborhoods to target cartel-affiliated migrant smuggling networks.