In 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico charged 7,099 criminal cases connected to southern border enforcement efforts. These cases included offenses such as illegal reentry, alien smuggling, immigration fraud, and false statements. Of these, 152 cases involved drug trafficking.
The office also prosecuted 32 cases involving aliens in possession of firearms, reinforcing federal prohibitions on firearm ownership by individuals without lawful status. In addition to its criminal caseload, the office handled a significant number of civil matters in 2025, including 82 habeas corpus cases.
“These cases show how criminal organizations exploit people for profit, move violence across borders, and poison communities with drugs and weapons,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison. “In New Mexico, we are focused on identifying the leaders, dismantling the networks they rely on, and using federal prosecutions to disrupt these operations at every level.”
Highlighted prosecutions from 2025 include:
- In United States v. Diana Perez et al., Otero County Sheriff’s Officers responded to a hostage situation at a stash house where multiple individuals—including children—were held against their will after being smuggled into the country. Victims were provided minimal food and threatened with violence if they tried to leave; additional payments were demanded from their families before release. Valerie Perez received a ten-year federal prison sentence in May 2025.
- United States v. Alejandro Villalobos-Torres centered on a victim smuggled into the U.S. and held for ransom between stash houses in Texas and New Mexico until rescued in Chaparral in November 2022. The accused leader was arrested in March 2025; the case is ongoing.
- In United States v. Jorge Alberto De La Cruz-Dominguez et al., defendants allegedly transported up to forty individuals per week—including unaccompanied minors—through stash houses spanning Santa Teresa, El Paso, and Albuquerque. Seven defendants were arrested in February 2025; all but one have pleaded guilty.
- United States v. Nan Zhang et al., filed this year in Albuquerque, alleges that Nan Zhang and her husband used rental properties as stash houses while laundering money through real estate sales on behalf of smuggling organizations.
Other notable prosecutions included indictments against suspected members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang for racketeering crimes such as kidnapping and murder; dismantling a major fentanyl trafficking organization led by Heriberto Salazar-Amaya with large seizures across several states; and charges against former magistrate judge Joel Cano and his wife related to evidence tampering involving suspected gang members.
These efforts are part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), created under Executive Order 14159: Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF brings together agencies across government to target criminal cartels and human trafficking rings both domestically and internationally by investigating crimes ranging from child trafficking to violent offenses committed by foreign gangs.
The task force aims not only to prosecute but also remove violent criminal aliens from the country using all available legal tools.
