GREAT FALLS - Four Mexican citizens who were arrested in Glacier County on suspicion of smuggling aliens into the United States or illegal reentry pleaded not guilty today to immigration-related crimes, U.S. Kurt Alme said.
Alberto Guillen-Gordillo, 22, Omero Banderas-Rodriguez, 39, and Samuel Velasco-Tovar, 28, all citizens of Mexico, pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging them with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and transportation of illegal aliens. If convicted of the most serious crime, the defendants face a maximum 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
The indictment alleges the defendants conspired from 2018 to Nov. 17, 2019 to transport at least six, but not more than 25, illegal aliens into the United States.
Ma Mercedes Rivera-Gutierrez, 39, of Mexico, pleaded not guilty to a separate indictment charging her with illegal reentry. If convicted of the most serious crime, Rivera-Gutierrez faces a maximum two years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. The indictment alleges that Rivera-Gutierrez illegally reentered the United States after having been deported.
All of the defendants were arrested on Nov. 17 in Glacier County by Border Patrol agents who were investigating suspected alien smuggling.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Johnston presided. All of the defendants remain detained pending further proceedings.
The indictments are merely accusations and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The case was investigated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Pacer case reference. 19-84 and 19-85.
If any of the above cases are of interest to you, we encourage you to monitor the progress of the case regularly through the U.S. District Court calendar and the PACER system.
To establish a PACER account, which will allow you to review documents filed in the case, please go to, http://www.pacer.gov/register.html. To access the district court’s calendar, please go to https://ecf.mtd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/PublicCalendar.pl.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
