Federal Jury Finds Deming Man Guilty of Conspiring to Transport Illegal Aliens

ALBUQUERQUE – Yesterday afternoon, a federal jury sitting in Las Cruces, N.M., found Jose Efrain Cavazos, 67, of Deming, N.M., guilty of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens.  The guilty verdict was announced by U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez and El Paso Sector Chief Border Agent Jeffrey D. Self of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Cavazos was arrested on Nov. 20, 2014, and charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens.  He subsequently was indicted on Feb. 18, 2015, and charged with the same crime.  Trial against Cavazos commenced on May 27, 2015, and concluded yesterday afternoon when the jury returned a guilty verdict on the sole count of the indictment.

The evidence at trial established that on Nov. 19, 2014, Border Patrol Agents came upon six individuals lying on the ground north of Mile Marker 69 on New Mexico State Road 9 in Luna County, N.M.  Questioning by the agents revealed that the individuals were unlawfully in the United States.  The agents recovered a cellular phone from one of the undocumented aliens.  The agents then used the cellular phone number and arranged to be picked up on Interstate 10 in New Mexico by the person who answered the phone.  The following day Cavazos was arrested when he arrived to pick up an individual he believed to be an undocumented alien, but were in fact Border Patrol Agents.

The jury deliberated approximately two hours before returning its guilty verdict.

Cavazos faces a statutory maximum penalty of ten years in federal prison followed by up to three years of supervised release.

This case was investigated by the Deming Border Patrol Station of the U.S. Border Patrol and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Luis A. Martinez and Anna R. Wright of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.