Another 301 charged in efforts to secure the southern border

HOUSTON - The Southern District of Texas has filed 296 cases in immigration and related matters from June 5-11, announced Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck.

The charges include 186 illegal aliens for unlawfully reentering the United States and another 65 for illegal entry. Many have previous convictions related to narcotics trafficking, immigration offenses, violent crimes and more. An additional 41 people allegedly engaged in human smuggling, while the remaining nine people face immigration-related charges.

Among the new allegations are several convicted illegal alien felons who attempted to illegally reenter the United States.

One of those was allegedly Pedro Martinez-Arias from Mexico. According to the charges, law enforcement discovered him near Linn, despite having been previously removed Oct. 19, 2024. The criminal complaint alleges he has a prior conviction for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and had been ordered to serve 168 months in prison before his removal from the United States.

He and others charged with felony reentry after prior removal face up to 20 years in federal prison, upon conviction.

In addition to the new cases, two Guatemalan human smugglers admitted to their roles in the 2021 mass casualty event in Chiapas, Mexico. Josefa Quino Canil De Zavala and Alberto Marcario Chitic acknowledged they conspired with other smugglers to transport illegal aliens from Guatemala through Mexico to the United States. They recruited aliens, collected payment, arranged for travel and even provided scripted language to unaccompanied minors if U.S. immigration authorities apprehended them. On Dec. 9, 2021, they and others arranged for aliens to be loaded into a tractor trailer that ultimately crashed north of the Guatemala/Mexico border, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 and injuries of over 100 more.

The cases are referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, ICE - Enforcement and Removal Operations, Border Patrol, Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with additional assistance from state and local law enforcement partners.

The cases are part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.

Under current leadership, public safety and a secure border are the top priorities for this district. Enhanced enforcement both at the border and in the interior of the district have yielded aliens engaged in unlawful activity or with serious criminal histories, including convictions for human trafficking, sexual assault and violence against children.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas remains one of the busiest in the nation. It represents 43 counties and more than 10 million people covering 44,000 square miles. Assistant U.S. Attorneys from all seven divisions including Houston, Galveston, Victoria, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen and Laredo work directly with our law enforcement partners on the federal, state and local levels to prosecute the suspected offenders of these and other federal crimes.

An indictment or criminal complaint is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.