Arizona man gets 14-month sentence, $10k fine for smuggling 5 migrants
Nov 19, 2022, 12:00 PM
PHOENIX — An Arizona man was sentenced in November to more than a year in prison for smuggling five migrants in the United States, authorities said.
Michael Ernesto Abril from Tucson, 24, will serve 14 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised released and pay a $10,000 fine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said in a press release.
He previously pleaded guilty to transporting migrants for profit.
Abril was pulled over after border patrol agents saw him driving a U-haul box truck at a high rate of speed on Nov. 17, 2021. He fled on foot but was apprehended and arrested.
Agents found the migrants inside the U-haul truck near Arivaca, about 29 miles northwest of Nogales.
The U.S. Border Patrol, Tucson Sector, investigated the case.
