Human smuggler from Phoenix gets 3 years of prison for driving noncitizens to US

PHOENIX — A district judge sentenced a Phoenix man to 40 months in prison for human smuggling and firearm offenses.

John Edward Crenshaw, 40, pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Transport Illegal Aliens for Profit and Possession on January 19. During the same hearing, he also pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm — even though he was a convicted felon and thus prohibited from carrying heat.

Authorities had caught him at a Border Patrol checkpoint in March 2022. He had been “erratically driving a Ford Fusion,” according to a Department of Justice announcement.

Agents found he had been transporting five people who weren’t documented American citizens. Most of them weren’t safe in the vehicle: Four were in the back of the car without seats or seatbelts.