Latino sentenced to 10 years in prison for trapping 35 immigrants in truck

Juan Contreras pleaded guilty on 2019 for transporting immigrants without entry documents to the United States and leaving them in a vehicle without ventilation

Photo: Courtesy / CBP

A Latino was sentenced to spend more than 05 years in federal prison for driving a truck with inside, which were trapped after the vehicle suffered a breakdown on a Texas highway.

Juan Contreras, who in February of 2021 had pleaded guilty of transporting the undocumented, he was sentenced to months in prison, as ruled by federal judge Marina García Marmolejo, in a hearing in Texas.

The events occurred on 19 June 2019 when the Federal authorities found Contreras in the damaged truck parked on the side of the Interstate highway 35 , near Laredo, Texas.

The vehicle was hermetically sealed, but the officers noticed that a foreigner was trying to open the door.

The authorities rescued a total of 35 illegal immigrants who were trapped inside the trailer, some of whom had lost the knowledge of the lack of oxygen and high temperatures. Similar cases have been detected by the Border Patrol .

When passing sentence, Judge Marmolejo pointed out that Contreras had been given multiple previous opportunities not to continue with the criminal activity and that this was his third conviction for illegal trafficking.

According to a statement from the Justice Department, when he was arrested that June of 2019 Contreras was on supervised freedom for a prior conviction of transporting an undocumented alien.

“The Contreras sentence sends a clear message that people who engage in criminal activities without regard for human life will be located, arrested, tried and sentenced for their actions,” said the special agent of the Immigration Control Service and Customs ( ICE ) Timothy Tubbs.

The investigation revealed that the undocumented had been hitting the walls of the trailer while the truck was parked