Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 84 border-related cases this week, including charges of assault on a federal officer, 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 July 11, Nicolas Duarte-Moreno, a Mexican citizen, was arrested and charged with Bringing in Aliens for Financial Gain. According to a complaint, Duarte-Moreno was arrested by Customs and Border Protection officers after he attempted to enter the U.S. in a Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder through a Sentri lane at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry with an undocumented immigrant hiding in the vehicle. Officers found the immigrant from Guatemala concealed in the cargo area where the convertible top retracts. While CBP officials dismantled the cargo area by removing bolts and speakers to find and extricate the immigrant, he complained that he could not breathe. He was immediately taken to a hospital.
- On July 15, Luis Angel Galvez Alvarez, Julio Cesar Oros Castro and Francisco Javier Castro Acosta, all Mexican citizens, were arrested and charged with Importation of a Controlled Substance. According to a complaint, the trio attempted to enter the U.S. about the same time, each driving a Freightliner tractor through the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped each vehicle; they found about 29 pounds of cocaine concealed in the walls behind the beds of each tractor. The complaint said all three drivers admitted they were employed by the same trucking company.
- On July 16, Jorge Ismael Valencia-Julian, a Mexican citizen, was arrested and charged with Deported Alien Found in the United States. According to a complaint, Valencia-Julian was arrested by a Border Patrol agent who tracked his footprints for five hours as the defendant tried to escape in rough terrain. Valencia-Julian was previously deported in March 2024 at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
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 July 11, 2025, Ricardo Velez-Torres, a Mexican National who was previously convicted of Burglary in the First Degree in 2006 and Illegal Reentry in 2002, was sentenced in federal court to 21 months in custody for again entering the U.S. illegally.
- On July 18, Julio Leyva-Solis, a Mexican national who was previously convicted of the felony facilitation of human smuggling, felony theft of property on three occasions, and felony possession of methamphetamine, was sentenced in federal court to 12 months plus one day in custody for again entering the U.S illegally.
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.