ALBANY, NEW YORK - Jose Eduardo Lopez-Hernandez, age 21, and a citizen of Guatemala who was residing in Providence, Rhode Island, was sentenced yesterday to 60 months in prison for smuggling aliens.
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and Robert N. Garcia, Chief Patrol Agent, United States Border Patrol, Swanton Sector.
As part of his guilty plea, Lopez-Hernandez admitted that on Aug. 22, 2018, he and a co-defendant were paid to travel from Rhode Island to Chateaugay, New York, where they picked up five Romanian citizens who had just illegally entered the United States from Canada. When Border Patrol attempted to stop their vehicle, the co-defendant led Border Patrol on a high-speed chase before crashing the vehicle in Ellenburg, New York. Lopez-Hernandez, the co-defendant, and three of the Romanians fled the crash scene, but were all apprehended within hours; no one was injured.
Following his term of imprisonment, Lopez-Hernandez will be transferred to the custody of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, for removal proceedings.
This case was investigated by the Border Patrol, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katherine Kopita and Douglas Collyer.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
