BRUCEVILLE-EDDY: A San Antonio man pleaded guilty Thursday to smuggling several illegal aliens through Central Texas on the way to Dallas.
U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith accepted a guilty plea from Adrian Bustos, ordered a pre-sentence investigation, remanded Bustos to federal custody and set his sentencing hearing for July 8.
Bustos was arrested after he was stopped May 8 on Interstate 35 in Bruceville-Eddy for speeding through a construction zone, a document presented Thursday in the plea hearing said.
A Bruceville-Eddy police officer noticed as he approached the vehicle that there were five other men inside.
The driver told the officer he did not know the other men buy had picked them up from a house in San Antonio and was delivering them to Dallas.
During a subsequent investigation police learned the other men inside the vehicle were from Mexico and not legally in the United States.
Agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were called to the scene and soon learned Bustos had previous charges for alien smuggling, the document said.
Bustos, during questioning, admitted to the federal agents he had agreed to take the five men to Dallas because “he needed the money.”
The five passengers were interviewed and told officers they had paid what they called a $1,500 tax in Mexico to be smuggled into Laredo and later $4,500 more each for travel to a final destination in the U.S.
They travelled inside an 18-wheeler from Laredo to San Antonio where they met a man at a gas station who was to drive them to Dallas.
Bustos admitted he was to be paid an amount of cash for driving the men to Dallas but would not say who was to pay him.
The document said Bustos was serving a federal probation term for possession of a firearm and, in fact, had met with his probation officers just hours before beginning the trip to Dallas.
