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Press Release

El Salvador citizen sentenced to 12 months in prison for smuggling illegal aliens for profit

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Louisiana

LAKE CHARLES, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that a citizen of El Salvador was sentenced to 12 months in prison for transporting illegal immigrants for his own profit.

Raul Alexander Soriano, 29, of San Salvador, El Salvador, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi on one count of transporting illegal aliens. According to the April 20, 2016 guilty plea, U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped Soriano’s vehicle on December 22, 2015, near Lake Charles.  Four passengers were found in the vehicle with Soriano, and each admitted to being in the United States illegally. The passengers had paid Soriano to be transported to other areas of the United States as part of a human smuggling operation.

United States Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney David C. Joseph prosecuted the case.

Updated August 25, 2016

Topic
Human Smuggling