Mexican national sentenced Monday for trafficking eleven people and drug smuggling
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Jorge Muñoz-Muñoz, 27, of Ensenada, Mexico, was sentenced to 110 months in federal prison on Monday for trafficking 11 undocumented people and 45 pounds of methamphetamine using a boat which made landfall on a Santa Barbara County beach in September of 2021.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California detail that after a five-day trial in December, a federal jury found Muñoz-Muñoz guilty of the following charges:
- One count of conspiracy to bring aliens into the country
- 11 counts of alien smuggling
- 11 counts of alien smuggling for financial gain
- One count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine
- One count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine
- One count of conspiracy to import methamphetamine
- One count of importation of methamphetamine
On the morning of Sep. 27, 2021, law enforcement spotted a panga boat, a small open-air vessel with an outboard motor commonly used for fishing, adrift off the coast of Santa Barbara County state the U.S. Attorney's Office.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the skiff was having engine trouble and eventually made landfall at Arroyo Quemada Beach between Gaviota and Isla Vista.
A later investigation revealed that a total of 15 people were onboard as well as two black bags that contained 40 vacuum-sealed, plastic-wrapped bindles which were thrown off of the boat before landfall and under the direction of Muñoz-Muñoz, but were later recovered by law enforcement detail the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Based on interviews with the passengers on board, they gathered at Ensenada Beach in Mexico to board the panga boat to be smuggled into the United States for $15,000 each relay the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Muñoz-Muñoz has remained in federal custody since his arrest in September of 2021 and two others had already been convicted before Monday's sentencing announcement explain the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The boat's captain, Roel Aranzubia-Alvarez, 45, of Sinaloa, Mexico was convicted alongside Muñoz-Muñoz on smuggling charges and sentenced to five years in federal prison detail the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Another crew member, Caín Camargo-Lopez, 46, of Sinaloa, Mexico pled guilty to two counts of alien smuggling and one count of conspiring to allow an alien convicted of aggravated felonies to enter the United States in April of 2022 relay the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Camargo-Lopez was sentenced to five years in federal prison in August of 2022 detail the U.S. Attorney's Office.
