A Texas woman and man were sentenced to 121 months and 135 months in prison and ordered to pay money judgments of $942,537.00 and $438,119.00, respectively, this week for their roles as the leaders of a human smuggling organisation that conspired to illegally transport, harbour, and conceal from law enforcement hundreds of undocumented individuals in the United States and launder the proceeds of their illicit human smuggling.
“Confining individuals, including minors, in coffin-like spaces with no room to move or breathe reveals this organisation’s complete disregard for human life,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas. “Those who profit from such human suffering will face justice, and their ill-gotten gains will be stripped away to ensure that crime does not pay.”
According to court documents, Erminia Serrano Piedra, also known as Irma and Boss Lady, 33, and Oscar Angel Monroy Alcibar, also known as Pelon, 41, were leaders of an illegal HSO that unlawfully transported, harboured, and concealed from law enforcement the detection of hundreds of undocumented individuals in the United States.
These individuals were citizens of Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and elsewhere and they or their families paid members of the HSO to help them travel illegally to and within the United States.
Serrano Piedra’s role included directing the operations of the HSO, recruiting members, ordering payments to be made related to the organisation’s operation, and instructing members of the HSO to be lookouts for law enforcement. Monroy Alcibar coordinated the smuggling of undocumented individuals and the movement of financial proceeds for the HSO.
The HSO used drivers to pick up undocumented individuals near the U.S.-Mexico border and transport them further into the interior of the United States, often harbouring them at “stash houses” along the way in locations such as Laredo and Austin, Texas.
Drivers for the HSO used various dangerous methods to transport undocumented individuals, including hiding them in suitcases placed in pickup trucks, cramming them in the back of tractor-trailers, covered beds of pickup trucks, repurposed water tankers, and wooden crates strapped to flatbed trailers.
The methods used by the HSO to transport undocumented individuals placed their lives in danger, as they were frequently held in contained spaces with little ventilation, which became overheated and made it difficult to breathe, and they were driven at high speeds with no vehicle restraints in the back of trucks and tankers.
Members of this HSO commonly referred to the undocumented individuals as “boxes,” “packages,” or “pieces.” Typically, the fee paid to the organization was approximately $8,000, with $3,000 paid upfront to smugglers in Mexico and the remainder paid once the undocumented individuals entered the United States.
Further, Serrano Piedra and Monroy Alcibar have admitted in court documents that they conspired to engage in financial transactions designed to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, and control of ill-gotten proceeds of illicit human smuggling and the unlawful harbouring and transportation of undocumented individuals.
The leaders of the organisation recruited and utilized straw persons to accept human smuggling proceeds in the straw persons’ bank accounts and then transferred these proceeds to the leaders under the pretence of work payments. The defendants also established businesses and opened business accounts to transfer the human smuggling proceeds.
In addition, the defendants recruited individuals in the construction industry who accepted human smuggling proceeds in the form of cash in exchange for checks from the recruited individuals’ business bank accounts.
Serrano Piedra and Monroy Alcibar, both leaders of the HSO, have admitted in court documents that they made significant money from their involvement in human smuggling. Moreover, Serrano Piedra admitted she was going to continue doing this for her lifetime and was not planning to retire.
In addition to the terms in prison, the court entered orders of criminal forfeiture of two properties belonging to one or both of these defendants, which were purchased with the illicit proceeds of human smuggling, recently estimated to have a value of approximately $2,275,000 and $515,000.
Serrano Piedra and Monroy Alcibar were originally charged by indictment in August 2022 and then by superseding indictment in August 2023. Serrano Piedra pleaded guilty on Jan. 4, 2024, to conspiracy to transport and move illegal aliens, transporting aliens for commercial and private financial gain and placing the lives of aliens in jeopardy while doing so, and conspiracy to launder money. Monroy Alcibar pleaded guilty on Jan. 9, 2024, to the same charges.
Including Serrano Piedra and Monroy Alcibar, 14 co-conspirators have been sentenced for their various roles in the HSO, including some for laundering illicit proceeds. The sentences ranged up to 135 months in prison, with money judgments totalling over $2.3 million and forfeiture of interests in real property, including residences located in Bastrop and Elgin, Texas. One other co-conspirator still awaits sentencing.
