Federal prosecutors in South Texas charged 413 people in immigration and border security enforcement operations from February 6 to 13, according to U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei in a press release.
The cases include allegations against 17 people who allegedly participated in human smuggling. Prosecutors charged 167 people with illegal entrance and another 227 with felony reentry following earlier expulsion. The majority of those people have prior felony convictions, including drug offenses, violent crimes, and immigration infractions. The remaining four people are facing charges relating to various immigration offenses and false claims.
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Among the most famous cases, investigators charged Andres Wilkinson, a Customs and Border Protection supervisor in Laredo, with harboring an illegal alien. According to the lawsuit, Wilkinson reportedly allowed the individual and her underage child to live in his home, offered financial assistance, and allowed her to drive vehicles registered in his name. The indictments also say that he deliberately carried her through Border Patrol checkpoints. If convicted, Wilkinson faces up to ten years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
According to criminal complaints, five people sought to reenter the nation unlawfully within ten months after their most recent expulsion. Mexican nationals Edgar Madrid-Orozco, Lauriano Santos-Rios, and Aaron Nava-Carillo were previously deported on April 11, July 9, and August 31, respectively. Edwin Rene Mancillas-Suriano, a Belizean, was deported on May 22, and Juan Dieguez-Nolasco, a Guatemalan, was removed on December 30, 2025.
Each defendant allegedly has prior felony convictions for violence, aggravated assault with a lethal weapon, illegal reentry, aggravated sexual abuse, and attack on a family member. Authorities eventually discovered that all five were in the United States illegally. If convicted, everyone may face up to 20 years in federal prison.
Sindi Vanessa Moreno-Flores, a Belizean national, pleaded guilty in Houston to assaulting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. During a targeted enforcement operation in Conroe, Moreno-Flores attempted to flee arrest, scratching an ICE agent’s arm and hands and swinging her bound arm at the agent before being detained.
In McAllen, 36-year-old Mexican national Angel Fabian Moreno-Rodriguez was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison. During a traffic stop in Donna, law officials uncovered five kilograms of fentanyl hidden in vacuum-sealed sachets inside a cardboard box on the front passenger seat of the vehicle. “I was paid to transport the narcotics,” Moreno-Rodriguez explained.
Prosecutors also announced Gonzalo Chavez’s conviction for conspiring to transfer illegal aliens. Law enforcement officers noticed Chavez’s vehicle near the Rio Grande before performing a traffic check and discovered four illegal aliens attempting to hide themselves. During the trial, the jury heard evidence that Chavez collaborated with smugglers in Mexico to transfer the individuals after they crossed the river. Chavez faces up to ten years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
These cases were referred to or supported by federal law enforcement partners such as 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, as well as state and local law enforcement partners.
The cases are part of Operation Take Back America, a national campaign that uses the Department of Justice’s entire resources to battle illegal immigration, dismantle cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect communities from violent crime perpetrators.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas serves 43 counties and approximately nine million people across 44,000 square miles. Assistant US Attorneys from all seven divisions, including Houston, Galveston, Victoria, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen, and Laredo, collaborate closely with law enforcement partners at the federal, state, and municipal levels to prosecute suspected federal crime offenders.
