JACKSON, Miss. – An alien from Honduras was sentenced to 30 months in prison for the crime of  transporting and harboring illegal aliens, announced Acting United States Attorney Darren J. LaMarca.

According to court documents, on March 19, 2019, Dennis Omar Escobar-Castro was driving a Chevy Suburban with Texas license plates eastbound on Interstate I-20 when a Rankin County Sheriff’s Deputy made a traffic stop for careless driving.  Escobar-Castro could produce no driver’s license, and none of the eleven passengers had identification or driver’s licenses, other than South American IDs.  Two of the alien passengers were unaccompanied minors.

Castro admitted to agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that he believed all his passengers were nationals of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, and that Escobar-Castro had been driving them from Houston, Texas, to Atlanta, Georgia, to take them to work.  At least one alien passenger claimed to have paid $1,000 for Escobar-Castro to drive him from Texas to his destination.

An original indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in April 2019, charged Escobar-Castro with transporting and harboring aliens.  He pled guilty on March 25, 2021.

Escobar-Castro appeared today for sentencing before United States District Judge Carlton W. Reeves in Jackson.  Judge Reeves sentenced Escobar-Castro to 30 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and a fine of $1200.

Acting U.S. Attorney LaMarca commended the work of the Special Agents with HSI’s Jackson Division who investigated the case, and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office who assisted with the discovery and arrest of defendants.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Theodore Cooperstein and Keesha Middleton.