Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
SAN ANTONIO – Acting United States Attorney Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas announced today, that federal prosecutors in the district filed 334 new immigration and immigration-related criminal cases from May 16 through May 22.
Among the new cases, Salvadoran felon Erick Douglas Serrano-Aleman was arrested by Van Horn Border Patrol agents for being an illegal alien present in the U.S. A criminal complaint indicates Serrano-Aleman was previously convicted of transporting and selling a controlled substance as well as accessory. In 2004, he was convicted for illegal re-entry in Nogales, Arizona. Serrano-Aleman has been deported twice and allegedly claims to be a member of the Sureño 13 gang.
In El Paso, multiple alleged human smugglers were arrested, including U.S. citizen Ernesto Covarrubias and Tanya Joselyn De La Paz-Nunez, a Mexican national in possession of a legal B1/B2 Visa Border Crossing Card. Covarrubias, as the vehicle driver, and De La Paz-Nunez allegedly picked up five illegal aliens inside a pecan orchard near the Tornillo Port of Entry, intending to transport them to a stash house.
U.S. citizen Gabriela Ivon Trejo-Gonzalez was arrested after U.S. Border Patrol agents allegedly observed six individuals crawl through a breach in the border fence near the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry and board Trejo-Gonzalez’s vehicle. The defendant allegedly drove away at a high rate of speed and continued in an attempt to evade law enforcement before becoming inoperable. Trejo-Gonzalez allegedly claimed she would be paid $500 per alien. She was convicted for alien smuggling in New Mexico in June 2023 and probation violation in October 2023.
Juan Pedro Carmona-Cerritos, a Mexican felon, was arrested in El Paso and charged with illegal re-entry. Carmona-Cerritos was last removed from the U.S. in April 2009. He was previously convicted of child abuse in 2004 and second degree reckless homicide in 2005 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, for which he was sentenced to a total of approximately three years in prison. Guatemalan national Ramon Cortes-Velasquez was also arrested for illegal re-entry in El Paso, having been convicted of assault causing bodily injury to a family member in February and removed from the U.S. to Guatemala in March.
Mexican nationals Jose Rolando Arenas-Aleman and J Angel Nava-Sanchez were arrested near Del Rio. According to court documents, Arenas-Aleman was arrested May 14 by U.S. Border Patrol agents for being an illegal alien present in the United States. He had previously been removed to Mexico for the second time through Laredo on Sept. 6, 2024 following his second conviction for Driving While Intoxicated. Nava-Sanchez was arrested May 15 after allegedly crossing the Rio Grande River near Del Rio. Nava-Sanchez was convicted twice in Tarrant County. He was found sentenced to 45 days in jail for a DWI in July 2022 and 29 days in jail in August 2018, for assault causing bodily injury to a family member.
A U.S. citizen was arrested May 19 during a traffic stop on Highway 85 near Dilley. A criminal complaint alleges that Alex Guadalupe Nieto was the driver of a vehicle transporting six illegal aliens. The complaint alleges that Nieto stated he and another individual drove from Houston, picking up the six illegal aliens on the side of the road, and that he had expected to be paid $500.00 to transport the aliens.
In Austin, Mexican national Juan Robledo-Trevino aka Octavio Garcia-Sanchez was taken into federal custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being arrested and sentenced to 10 days in the Travis County Jail for failure to identify. Robledo-Trevino has two prior convictions for illegal re-entry, and four previous DWI convictions. He’s been removed from the U.S. to Mexico four times, most recently in November 2016, and voluntarily returned to Mexico twice.
Mexican national Jose Hernandez-Martinez was taken into ICE custody in Austin where he had been arrested for his second DWI and spent 20 days in the Travis County Jail. Hernandez-Martinez has a prior illegal entry conviction along with convictions for theft and assault causing bodily injury to a family member. He voluntarily returned to Mexico in 2006, and has been twice removed from the U.S.
Edgar Aguilar-Mejia, a Guatemalan national, was also taken into ICE custody in Austin. Aguilar-Mejia was convicted twice in 2023 for illegal re-entry and has been removed from the U.S. three times before, as recent as April 2024.
These cases were referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO), U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with additional assistance from state and local law enforcement partners.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas comprises 68 counties located in the central and western areas of Texas, encompasses nearly 93,000 square miles and an estimated population of 7.6 million people. The district includes three of the five largest cities in Texas—San Antonio, Austin and El Paso—and shares 660 miles of common border with the Republic of Mexico.
These cases are part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).
Indictments and criminal complaints are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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