18 Members of a Yuma-Based Alien Smuggling Ring Sentenced for Conspiring to Harbor and Transport Illegal Aliens

PHOENIX, Ariz. – On November 21, 2025, United States District Judge, Krissa M. Lanham, District of Arizona, sentenced the eighteenth and final defendant in a joint operation investigated by United States Border Patrol along with the United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Arizona.

United States Border Patrol became aware of an alien smuggling organization known as La Mesa after connecting transportation of illegal alien cases in the District of Arizona and the Central and Southern Districts of California. Prior to the arrest of the eighteen members in September 2024, La Mesa, who worked on behalf of the Mexico-based transnational criminal organization Los Rusos, operated out of Yuma and Somerton, Arizona.

Members of La Mesa were responsible for smuggling, or attempting to smuggle, hundreds of illegal aliens across the United States-Mexico border and further into the United States. Carlos Moreno-Serrano led the organization directing the team of managers who were responsible for coordinating smuggling events, procuring stash houses, distributing money, and enforcement. The managers oversaw the drivers transporting the illegal aliens, stash house staff, and scouting.

From 2022 through September of 2024, members of La Mesa used violence and threats of violence to control members of their organization, including kidnapping, robbing and extorting alien smugglers who had worked for their organization.

In January 2023, Saul Ponce Jr. (Ponce), Crystobal Figueroa (Figueroa), Angel Rodriguez (Rodriguez), Antonio Aparicio III (Aparicio), and Joshua Leon-Fuentes (Leon-Fuentes) kidnapped a man and took him into the desert. The kidnapping was filmed by Figueroa and the film shows Figueroa handing a firearm with an extended cylindrical magazine to Leon-Fuentes. Leon-Fuentes then points the firearm to the back of the man’s head while others tell him not to kill him because it is too close to the highway. Figueroa is then seen kicking the man in the back of the head.

During a separate kidnapping event in mid-2023, Leon-Fuentes, Aparicio, and Rodriguez drove to the house of a woman who had been caught alien smuggling by Border Patrol. They demanded the woman pay $20,000 for her failure to deliver the illegal aliens, though the woman could only provide the organization $10,000. Because she cost La Mesa money and had not fully repaid them for their losses, members of La Mesa were instructed to take her to Mexico to be punished. During the kidnapping, Leon-Fuentes put the barrel of a shot gun to her abdomen and told her if she tried anything it would not be pretty. Yuma Police Department arrived and thwarted the kidnapping. The woman informed Officers that Leon-Fuentes and the others told her once she was brought back to Mexico, she would be married off, tortured, or killed.

During the conspiracy, multiple defendants fled at a high rate of speed from law enforcement, and several illegal aliens sustained severe injuries while being transported. On several occasions, La Mesa also used juvenile drivers to transport illegal aliens. One juvenile driver, while fleeing Border Patrol, crashed a work van into a water canal with 24 illegal aliens inside, including a minor child and a pregnant woman.

“The facts of the criminal conduct here involving violence, kidnapping, firearms, and severe injury show why La Mesa or similar organizations engaging in harboring and transporting illegal aliens are so dangerous to our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine.  “The excellent efforts of our Border Patrol, and other law enforcement partners, are keeping Americans safe every day and we thank them for their hard work leading to the exceptional results in this case.”

The defendants were charged via Indictment or Superseding Indictment in November 2023 and September 2024 with Conspiring to Harbor and/or Transport Illegal Aliens.  Judge Krissa M. Lanham sentenced the defendants to the following sentences:

1. Victor Eduardo Araiza-Ponce, 24, of Yuma was sentenced to Time Served; plus 3 years of supervised release
2. Antonio Aparicio III, 24, of Somerton was sentenced to 68 months’ imprisonment
3. Alonzo Esparza, 27, of Yuma was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment
4. Carlos Moreno-Serrano, 24, of Yuma was sentenced to 90 months’ imprisonment
5. Xasiel Noriega-Gonzalez, 21, of Somerton was sentenced to 78 months’ imprisonment  
6. Joshua Guillermo Leon-Fuentes, 21, of Somerton was sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment
7. Angel Rodriguez, 23, of Yuma was sentenced to 54 months’ imprisonment
8. Crystobal Figueroa, 23, of Somerton was sentenced to 66 months’ imprisonment
9. Saul Ponce Jr., 23, of San Luis was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment
10. David Leon-Pallanes, 23, of Yuma was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release
11. Manuel Uriel Alvarado, 26, of Yuma was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment
12. Elian Lopez, 24, of Yuma was sentenced to 12 months’ probation
13. Raymundo Delgado-Diaz, 35, of Yuma was sentenced to 3 years probation
14. Isreal Zeveda, 23, of Salinas, California was sentenced to 12 months’ probation
15. Francisco Javier Esparza-Macias, 21, of Somerton was sentenced to 12 months of supervised release
16. Alex Chiquete, 25, of Yuma was sentenced to 24 months’ probation
17. Hector Eduardo-Valdez, 31, of Yuma was sentenced to 18 months’ probation
18. Jose Gabriel Marquez-Mendiola, 32, of Yuma was sentenced to 18 months’ probation

"The sentencing of the La Mesa smuggling organization members is a testament to the relentless pursuit of the rule of law and the cooperative efforts between the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Attorney's Office. Bringing these smugglers to justice serves as a clear warning: the U.S. Government will hold individuals accountable for their criminal actions,” said Acting Chief Patrol Agent Dustin Caudle. “I am extremely proud of our agents and their dedication to our mission, which ensures the safety of our communities and our great Nation."

Customs and Border Protection’s United States Border Patrol–Yuma Field Intelligence, El Centro Border Patrol and Indio Border Patrol conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ross Arellano Edwards and Stuart J. Zander, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Phoenix, handled the prosecution.

CASE NUMBER:           CR-23-01676-PHX-KML
RELEASE NUMBER:    2024-173_Araiza-Ponce et al.

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For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/

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