ICE busts human smuggling ring that kidnapped family, sexually assaulted pregnant woman

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, De Hoyos was involved in the kidnapping and attempted extortion of a family of illegal immigrants, consisting of a man, a pregnant woman and a seven-year-old child. The office said the smugglers sexually assaulted the pregnant woman and held the family for ransom. They obtained at least $1,000 from a relative and further threatened to kill the seven-year-old child and sell the unborn baby if additional payments were not made.

De Hoyos was first arrested in 2021 by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who observed him transporting three passengers wearing dirty clothing, hiking boots and camouflage backpacks. At the time, De Hoyos admitted the three passengers were illegal aliens and that he was being paid $1,500 to transport them to Del Rio. He was arrested again in August 2023 in relation to the kidnapping of the family.

Besides De Hoyos, four others have been sentenced. Texas man Juan Antonio Flores, 36, was sentenced to more than 17 years for his role in coordinating the smuggling trips. Two other co-conspirators, Tomas Estrada-Torres, 47, and Nelson Abilio Castro-Zelaya, received sentences of more than 12 years and 15 years, respectively.

Meanwhile, a 23-year-old Guatemalan national, Edwin Alfredo Barrientos-Mateo, nicknamed "Waches," was sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with the smuggling ring.

According to Simmons' office, four other co-conspirators - Ambar Obregon, Pedro Ruiz Gonzalez, Armando Garcia-Martinez and Anthony Ballones Jr. - have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

In a word of caution to would-be illegal aliens, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Justin Simmons said that "alien smuggling organizations care nothing about the hopes and dreams of those they smuggle."

"When they look at an illegal alien, all they see is a dollar sign," he went on, adding, "Do not trust them with your life because the only life they really care about is their own."

This week, Simmons' office also announced that 36-year-old Mexican national Pedro Luis Martinez-Jaquez was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for his leadership role in a conspiracy to transport hundreds of illegal aliens, resulting in at least one death.

Simmons called Martinez-Jaquez "one of the most prolific facilitators of alien smuggling in the last decade." He said that over the course of an 18-month operation, Martinez-Jaquez made hundreds of thousands of dollars transporting illegal aliens into the U.S.

Both stings were the result of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative launched by the Trump administration last year to "achieve total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations."