A 21-year-old resident of Laredo, Texas, has been sentenced to federal prison for his role in a multi-year conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States. U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei announced that Juan Francisco Reyna pleaded guilty on January 8 to conspiring to transport and harbor illegal aliens.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison sentenced Reyna to 63 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release. The court found him responsible for more than 100 aliens and imposed additional penalties for involving unaccompanied minors, reckless endangerment, and being a leader in the conspiracy.
"Over the past six months, the Department of Justice has made securing our national border the number one priority," said Ganjei. "Human smugglers may have had an easy time over the past few years, but those days are over."
Investigations revealed Reyna's involvement in human smuggling activities from 2019 to 2023. He was caught several times attempting to move individuals through checkpoints and was linked to multiple stash houses in Laredo and San Antonio.
Reyna recruited others to assist with harboring and transporting aliens across various states including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia, and Florida. He also coordinated with co-conspirators in Mexico using social media platforms like Facebook.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he instructed drivers to claim they were en route to medical appointments at checkpoints or designed routes through remote areas to bypass them entirely.
In April 2023, law enforcement discovered over $56,000 in U.S. currency and other assets at a stash house linked to Reyna.
He was arrested on November 7, 2024, after picking up suspected aliens at a warehouse in north Laredo. Authorities apprehended him following a brief pursuit where he attempted escape.
Reyna will remain in custody pending transfer to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility.
The investigation involved multiple agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Homeland Security Investigations, Border Patrol (BP), Texas Department of Public Safety among others as part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation supported by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA).
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Day prosecuted the case.
