Source: US FBI
SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 116 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California is the fourth-busiest federal district, largely due to a high volume of border-related crimes. This district, encompassing San Diego and Imperial counties, shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. It includes the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world’s busiest land border crossing, connecting San Diego (America’s eighth largest city) and Tijuana (Mexico’s second largest city).
In addition to reactive border-related crimes, the Southern District of California also prosecutes a significant number of proactive cases related to terrorism, organized crime, drugs, white-collar fraud, violent crime, cybercrime, human trafficking and national security. Recent developments in those and other significant areas of prosecution can be found here.
A sample of border-related arrests this week:
- On June 9, Alejandro Garcia Rivera and Angel Bel Tran Zamora, both Mexican citizens, were arrested and charged with Attempted Bringing in Aliens for Financial Gain and Aiding and Abetting after they were intercepted by the U.S. Coast guard off Point Loma as alleged captains of a smuggling boat; Gerardo Bejarano-Velazquez – who was also aboard the boat and had been previously deported to Mexico in 2018 in Nogales, Arizona – was arrested and charged with Attempted Entry After Deportation. Two other passengers were being held as material witnesses.
- On June 10, 2025, Jose Pablo Lopez Lopez, a Mexican citizen, was arrested and charged with Importation of a Controlled Substance. According to a complaint, when the defendant attempted to cross the border in his vehicle at the Tecate Port of Entry, Customs and Border Protection Officers found 113 packages containing 122 pounds of methamphetamine concealed in the door panels, spare tire, firewall and passenger seats.
- On June 10, Juan Moreno Morales, a Mexican citizen, was arrested and charged with Attempted Entry after Deportation. According to a complaint, he tried to enter the U.S. at the San Ysidro Port of Entry aboard an ambulance. The defendant eventually admitted to using a bogus medical emergency as a scheme to enter the United States illegally. Moreno Morales was previously removed from the United States in 2000 and 2023.
Also recently, a number of defendants with criminal records were convicted by a jury or sentenced for border-related crimes such as illegally re-entering the U.S. after previous deportation. Here are a few of those cases:
- On June 9, Reymond Arias Valdez, a national of the Dominican Republic, who has multiple felony convictions for narcotics distribution in Massachusetts, was sentenced in federal court to 18 months in custody for illegally entering the U.S. In addition, Arias-Valdez has a previous felony unlawful reentry of a deported alien conviction from 2020.
- On June 13, Carlos Fernando Gallegos-Camacho, a Mexican national who was previously convicted of being a deported alien found in the United States in 2022 and 2010, was sentenced in federal court to nine months in custody for again reentering the U.S. illegally.
- On June 13, 2025, Monica Valdivia Ramirez, a Mexican national, was sentenced to 56 months in prison for importation of over 86,000 fentanyl pills into the United States, with an estimated street value of more than $800,000. She was found guilty by a federal jury in February.
- On June 13, 2025, Francisco Luevano-Casillas – a Mexican national who was previously convicted of felony cocaine trafficking – was sentenced in federal court to 15 months in custody for illegally reentering the U.S. after deportation in May 2008. For the 2008 drug offense, Luevano-Casillas was sentenced to 96 months in prison.
Pursuant to the Department’s Operation Take Back America priorities, federal law enforcement has focused immigration prosecutions on undocumented aliens who are engaged in criminal activity in the U.S., including those who commit drug and firearms crimes, who have serious criminal records, or who have active warrants for their arrest. Federal authorities have also been prioritizing investigations and prosecutions against drug, firearm, and human smugglers and those who endanger and threaten the safety of our communities and the law enforcement officers who protect the community.
The immigration 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), Customs and Border Protection, 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 the support and assistance of state and local law enforcement partners.
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.