Mexico Trucker Online

National Guardsman Jose Rodrigo Torres pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants. He accepted a plea bargain that dropped six counts of transporting immigrants for which he was also indicted.

Torres, 26, entered his plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Diana Saldaña who will recommend that U.S. District Judge George Kazen find him guilty and pass down a sentence. The charge is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

As part of the plea bargain, Torres waives any right to appeal and because of that he must accept his sentencing without complaint.

Torres also agreed to cooperate with the government under a section in federal sentencing guidelines that could include providing assistance in the investigation or prosecution of others. Torres’ attorney, Oscar O. Peña Jr., said that agreement is “standard language in every plea bargain.”

Saldaña set a Sept. 20 deadline for completion of a pre-sentencing investigation report that will determine Torres’ guideline score. The score will then be applied when determining his sentence. The investigation by the probation office will take into consideration Torres’ past criminal history, if any, as well as his involvement in the conspiracy-to-transport case.

Once the guideline score is determined, Kazen will sentence Torres, but the judge can deviate from the punishment suggested by the score.

Peña said Torres’ score could be negatively affected when investigators consider his position of trust, within the National Guard, being abused in the undocumented-immigrant transportation case.

The number of immigrants and whether the method of transport was dangerous will also affect Torres’ score, Peña said. According to court documents, Torres and his alleged accomplices transported a total of 112 undocumented immigrants on at least seven occasions between May and June.

“Anything that happened that is a result of that agreement can be thrown into that sentencing,” Peña said. “It’s difficult to estimate sentencing with conspiracy.”

From prior experience, Peña estimates Torres will likely receive no more than five years in prison. As part of the agreement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to take off four levels of the sentencing guideline score, Peña said, which will likely lower his punishment.

Torres is the first to plead guilty in the ring of National Guardsmen arrested in June for transporting undocumented immigrants to Cotulla and San Antonio. Torres was arrested June 7 on Interstate 35 near Cotulla. Border Patrol agents found him in uniform driving a National Guard-leased van with 24 undocumented immigrants inside.

During court Thursday, an assistant U.S. attorney said a La Salle County Sheriff’s deputy saw Torres driving the van that was riding low to the ground in the rear and had its back seats missing. The deputy then alerted the Border Patrol, which caught up with Torres.

Torres alleges guardsman Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco recruited him to smuggle immigrants. According to court documents, Torres bypassed an immigration inspection at the Border Patrol checkpoint on north I-35 with the assistance of guardsman Sgt. Clarence Hodge Jr.

Pacheco, 25, and Hodge, 36, were arrested hours after Torres’ arrest. All three guardsmen were part of Operation Jump Start in Laredo, a border security initiative aimed at enabling more Border Patrol agents to go in the field by helping with administrative work.

The men were indicted on one count each of conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants and six counts each for transporting the immigrants. In July, Pacheco’s sister, Luisa, and her husband, Jerry Zuñiga, were also indicted and arrested in the case for allegedly harboring the immigrants at their home on Totem Pole Lane in Laredo.

All three guardsmen remain in jail at the Webb County Corrections Corp. of America Jail. Torres will face sentencing upon the completion of the pre-sentence investigation and pending the outcome of the case regarding the other indicted individuals.

Jury selection for Pacheco and Hodge is scheduled to begin today and their pretrial conference is scheduled for Sept. 12.