A foot guide who illegally led four Mexican citizens through the Otay Mountain wilderness before the U.S. Border Patrol arrested them was sentenced Friday to 5 years in federal prison.
The prosecutor and defense attorney both agreed to recommend the 60-month term for Efrain Delgado-Rosales, 35, when he appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Bencivengo in San Diego.
Delgado-Rosales pleaded guilty to bringing in illegal aliens for financial gain and could have received 10 years in prison. He will receive credit for five months he spent in jail since his Oct. 13, 2015, arrest.
One of the men with him tripped a seismic intrusion device that alerted the Border Patrol to their whereabouts, which was about one mile from the border and three miles east of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, court records say.
Delgado-Rosales was in a hurry, and he left three of the men behind. He was persuaded to go back for them following a day of hiking in the Otay mountains before their arrests.
Delgado-Rosales picked up the men at a stash house in Tijuana and he demanded to sell them brown clothing to wear as camouflage. He left them on the Mexican side of the border fence for several hours, and thieves swooped in and robbed them all of thousands of dollars and their cell phones.
When the men told Delgado-Rosales about the robbery, he appeared to be “indifferent,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s office, and they thought he might have been involved with the thieves.
All four men identified Delgado-Rosales as the foot guide after they were arrested. Delgado-Rosales is from Mexico.
The men told authorities they were going to pay $5,000 each for the smuggling venture before they were robbed.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said this incident was his 24th arrest since 1999, but he was always within a group of people except once.
“Smuggling activities are run by criminal organizations that have little concern over the welfare of their charges,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.
“Our office will aggressively prosecute those who smuggle illegal aliens into the United States for financial gain, place those in their company in grave danger and needlessly cause deaths,” concluded Duffy.
His attorney, David Baker, said his client has remorse and hopes to return to construction work after he is paroled.
