Cavazos Found Guilty of Smuggling Charge
(Deming) – A federal jury in Las Cruces Thursday found a Deming man guilty of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens.
U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez said 67-year-old Jose Efrain Cavazos of Deming was arrested in November of last year and charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens. The trial against Cavazos began Tuesday, May 27th, and concluded Thursday afternoon when the jury, after two hours of deliberation, returned a guilty verdict on the sole count of the indictment.
The evidence at trial established that on November 19th, 2014, Border Patrol Agents came upon six individuals lying on the ground north of Mile Marker 69 on New Mexico State Road 9 in Luna County.
Questioning by the agents revealed that the individuals were unlawfully in the United States.
The agents recovered a cellular phone from one of the undocumented aliens, used the cellular phone number and arranged to be picked up on Interstate 10 by the person who answered the phone.
The following day Cavazos was arrested when he arrived to pick up individuals he believed to be undocumented aliens, but who were, in fact, Border Patrol Agents.
Cavazos faces a statutory maximum penalty of ten years in federal prison followed by up to three years of supervised release.