A 22-year-old man from Brownsville, Cristian Rodriguez, has been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to transporting and attempting to transport undocumented aliens and assaulting a federal officer, as announced by U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.

Rodriguez pleaded guilty to the charges on May 23 and has now been ordered by U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. to serve 48 months in federal prison, to be immediately followed by two years of supervised release.

The incident took place on September 16, 2022, when law enforcement officers observed three individuals running away from the border wall and entering a gray vehicle at an intersection in Brownsville. Authorities activated their emergency equipment, but the driver, identified as Cristian Rodriguez, collided head-on with the marked law enforcement unit.

After the collision, authorities extracted the vehicle's occupants and assessed them for injuries. In total, five individuals were found in the gray vehicle, with three of them located in the rear of the vehicle. These three individuals were Mexican nationals who lacked proper documentation to be in or remain in the United States, having recently made an illegal entry into the country by crossing the Rio Grande River.

Additionally, the front passenger of the vehicle was identified as Rolando Rodriguez, the brother of Cristian Rodriguez. Rolando Rodriguez had also pleaded guilty to similar charges and was previously sentenced to 46 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release for transporting and attempting to transport undocumented aliens.

Cristian Rodriguez, who had been previously released on bond, will be allowed to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to federal authorities in the near future.

The investigation into this case was conducted jointly by Border Patrol and the FBI, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Coronado and Paul Marian prosecuting the case.