Cantarero-Sanchez Sentenced for Conspiracy to Transport Illegal Alien

BISMARCK – U.S. Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon announced that on July 31, 2013, Darwin Cantarero-Sanchez, 26, of Honduras, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patrick A. Conmy on a charge of conspiracy to transport illegal alien and a charge of improper entry by an alien. Cantarero-Sanchez pleaded guilty to the charges on May 7, 2013.

Judge Conmy sentenced Cantarero-Sanchez to serve one year and one day in federal prison on the charge of conspiracy to transport illegal alien and 117 days to serve concurrently on the charge of improper entry by an alien. Cantarero-Sanchez was ordered to pay a $110 special assessment to the Crime Victim’s Fund.

On April 6, 2013, at approximately 1:30 a.m., Cantarero-Sanchez and seven other individuals were apprehended approximately one half-mile south of the Sherwood, North Dakota, Port of Entry. All eight individuals had just illegally crossed the border into the United States without having been inspected or admitted by an immigration official.

Two of the subjects stated that they had paid Cantarero-Sanchez to smuggle them into the United States from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to the Sherwood Port of Entry. Cantarero-Sanchez then led the group around the port of entry crossing and illegally into the United States.

The case was investigated by the United States Border Patrol (Portal and Bottineau), the Renville County Sheriff’s Department, the Bottineau County Sheriff’s Department, the Sherwood Police Department and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hagler prosecuted the case.