Arizona woman sentenced to 27 months in prison for illegally transporting migrants

PHOENIX — A U.S. district judge in Arizona sentenced a woman Tuesday to over two years in prison for illegally transporting migrants, authorities said Wednesday.

Nicole Shermaine Martinez of Sells, 40, was sentenced to 27 months followed by three years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said.

A judge also sentenced Martinez on Nov. 8, 2023, to six months in prison for violating conditions of her federal probation.

She was on probation for a previous human smuggling conviction, officials said.

When was she illegally transporting migrants?

Martinez previously smuggled four undocumented migrants through the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, prosecutors said.

Two of those migrants were allegedly hidden in the trunk of her car.

Officials placed her on five years of probation, but she violated it on Jan. 18, 2023, prosecutors said.

On that day, she allegedly picked up two undocumented non-citizens near the village of Menagers Dam on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation.

A Border Patrol agent caught Martinez while she was driving the two migrants further into the U.S., prosecutors said.

The Border Patrol led the investigation of this case, while the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona in Tucson handled prosecution.

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