The Justice Department said a woman from Tucson, Arizona, was given a five-year jail sentence for bringing illegal immigrants into the country. For her involvement in a different case, the judge added another year.
The Justice Department stated in a statement that Mariana Garcia-Tapia, 32, of Tucson, entered a guilty plea in July for conspiring to transport illegal immigrants and endanger their lives.
A U.S. Border Patrol camera operator reportedly seen four alleged undocumented noncitizens approach a 2011 Volkswagen Routan on February 2, 2024, close to the Arizona town of Naco, according to federal prosecutors.
According to the prosecutors, “Another Border Patrol agent responded and observed the group get into the Routan. When Border Patrol stopped the vehicle, they found that it was only occupied by the driver and co-defendant, Sharnesia Latrice Cooley, her two-year-old minor son and the defendant, Garcia-Tapia.”
Garcia-Tapia was sentenced to an extra 12 months by the judge for breaking the terms of her supervised release in a different case. Cooley will be sentenced in January after a jury found him guilty.
Ten days prior, in a Justice Department press release, Phoenix resident Kevin Rojo-Barron, 21, was given a 12-year jail sentence for his role in a fatal collision on the Tohono O’Odham Indian reservation south of Phoenix.
Rojo-Barron crashed into a car after running a stop sign at the intersection of Federal Route 1 and Arizona State Route 86 while he was driving fast and carrying undocumented immigrants. Three Tohono O’Odham nationals perished in the collision.
Read Also:Â Loved Ones Plead for Help in Locating Missing Southern California Woman
“Further investigation showed that Rojo-Barron was smuggling four undocumented noncitizens and had an AR-15 style rifle in the vehicle at the time of the crash,” the Justice Department stated. One of the undocumented noncitizens died due to the crash and another was permanently injured.”
