A man from Kaufman, Texas named Fredi Zagala-Servin, aged 40, has been given a 97-month jail term for helping transport people who are not citizens legally. He was part of a group that smuggled many undocumented people from Laredo to San Antonio using big trucks. Court papers say he was a leader in this group and organized where the trucks would pick up the people. He was arrested in June 2022 and has been in jail since then.
The investigation began in May 2021 by a group called Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San Antonio. They found out about 19 times when people were smuggled by this group, totaling over 900 individuals. Between May 2021 and June 2022, HSI stopped nine of the trucks carrying these people. Sometimes, there were more than 30 people packed into a single truck.
Besides going to jail, Zagala-Servin will also have to be supervised for three years after he gets out and pay a fine of $410,250.
Officials in charge of the case say it's important to punish people who risk others' lives for money. They thanked HSI and Joint Task Force Alpha for their hard work in uncovering this crime.
The investigation was done by HSI and JTFA.
