Texas smuggling boss sentenced to 40 years in prison

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), a federal court in Del Rio has sentenced 36-year-old Nicolas Mondragon-Gonzalez of Luvianos, Mexico, also known as “Chayo” and “Flaco,” to a lengthy prison term.

The Justice Department cited court documents showing that Mondragon-Gonzales was the “leader and mastermind of a human smuggling organization” that allegedly smuggled an average of 20 undocumented migrants into the United States each day.

In March 2021, he allegedly hired a driver named Sebastian Tovar to transport nine undocumented migrants. When a police officer attempted to stop Tovar's pickup truck, Tovar led officers on a chase during which his truck crossed into the oncoming lane and collided head-on with another vehicle.

Eight of the nine passengers in Tovar's vehicle – Mexican citizens aged 18 to 20 – were killed, while two people in the other vehicle were injured.

At the scene of the accident, Border Patrol agents reportedly noticed a pickup truck stuck in traffic. While they were redirecting traffic around the accident site, several people from the truck fled on foot. Agents managed to arrest 12 migrants, four of whom admitted to being involved in a failed smuggling attempt that involved both the stationary truck and the crashed one.

Tovar was sentenced to 35 years in prison in August 2023 for his role in the criminal operation.

Mondragon-Gonzalez was arrested in September 2021 and pleaded guilty to a federal court indictment in January 2022. The charges included one count of conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants, one count of transporting undocumented immigrants resulting in death, and two counts of transporting undocumented immigrants.

Others involved in human smuggling into the United States – Lauren Michelle Malmquist, Veronica Torres-Mendez and Eduardo Rivera Benitez, who all pleaded guilty to smuggling illegal immigrants resulting in death – face life sentences, while Jose Eli Rodriguez faces up to 10 years in prison.

Co-defendant Ruben Junior Rodriguez-Jaimes, who worked as a foot guide, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in August 2023. Rogelio Manuel Luna received a nine-year sentence in June 2024 and Jennifer Oralia Davis, known as “Paypa,” was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison in September 2023.