Following her guilty plea to human smuggling, a Honduran lady was sentenced to ten years in jail on Tuesday, according to the authorities.
Maria Mendoza-Mendoza, 52, was given a 120-month prison sentence by a judge, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.
Prosecutors claimed that she oversaw a criminal gang that brought more than a hundred migrants into the United States illegally from Honduras.
According to investigators, a large number of these migrants were brought to stash homes run in Phoenix.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona claims that Mendoza-Mendoza threatened the defenseless migrants in order to take advantage of them.
Mendoza-Mendoza intimidated migrants into paying their smuggling costs by using threats, according to the prosecution.
According to police, her organization collected millions of dollars in smuggling payments through funnel accounts. In order to get her way, Mendoza-Mendoza allegedly used threats and coercion to hold migrants in the Phoenix stash houses until they paid.
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Before being extradited to the United States from Honduras in June 2023, Mendoza was charged in January 2018.
The Honduran lady, according to officials, was also known by the alias “La Guera,” which roughly translates to “white girl.”
Homeland Security Investigations special agent Fransisco B. Burrola described Mendoza-Mendoza’s activities as subtle.
“Human smugglers do nothing but prey on vulnerable people who at times pay with their lives while crossing the border,” Burrola stated in a news release. “Let this sentencing serve as a warning to other smugglers contemplating their continued participation: Prison awaits you.”
