People smuggler admits using sewer pipes to take people from Mexico to U.S.
A people smuggler has admitted helping immigrants enter the United States from Mexico by traveling through sewer pipes, prosecutors said Thursday.
A people smuggler has admitted to helping seven immigrants enter the United States from Mexico by traveling through sewer pipes that cross the border, prosecutors said Thursday.
Kevin Noe Campos Villa, 20, from Tijuana, Mexico, pleaded guilty in federal court to smuggling people across the border in return for $6,000. He will be sentenced in June and faces up to 10 years in prison and a potential $250,000 fine.
The court heard that Campos and three of the migrants who crossed the border under his guidance on Jan. 22 were approached by Border Patrol agents, who spotted them going through pipes 2 miles west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
"According to court records, two of the unauthorized immigrants who were rescued stated that they feared for their lives when crossing the river because they did not know how to swim," the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California said in a statement.
One migrant told authorities that he was "swept away by the river’s current and was able to grab and hold onto a tree branch until his rescue," the statement said.
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