Alien Pleads Guilty to Transporting and Harboring Illegal Aliens

Jackson, Miss. – Dennis Omar Escobar-Castro, age 29, a  Honduran national, pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to transporting and harboring illegal aliens, announced Acting United States Attorney Darren J. LaMarca and Jack P. Stanton, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New Orleans Field Office.

“Interstate human trafficking remains a major threat,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca.  “These arrests affirm the Department of Justice’s commitment to prosecuting those who prey on the desperate and vulnerable to exacerbate violations of our immigration laws.”

On March 19, 2019, Escobar-Castro was traveling eastbound on Interstate I-20 in a Chevy Suburban when a Rankin County Sheriff’s Deputy made a traffic stop for careless driving.  Escobar-Castro could produce no driver’s license, and none of the eleven passengers had identification or driver’s licenses, other than South American IDs.  HSI agents interviewed Escobar-Castro and the eleven passengers.  Escobar-Castro admitted that he believed all his passengers were foreign nationals and that he had been driving them from Houston, Texas, to Atlanta, Georgia to take them to work.

Escobar-Castro was charged in a federal criminal indictment on April 16, 2019 with transporting and harboring aliens.   During his guilty plea hearing today, Escobar-Castro admitted to being paid for driving the passengers whom he knew to be aliens unlawfully present in the United States.

Escobar-Castro will be sentenced by Judge Reeves on July 8, 2021 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. 

Acting U.S. Attorney LaMarca commended the work of the Special Agents with HSI’s Jackson Division who investigated the case, and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office who assisted with the discovery and arrest of defendants.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Theodore Cooperstein.