Colombian Smuggler Pleads Guilty in Route Linked to 42 Missing Migrants, DOJ Warns of 20-Year Penalty
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 18
Colombian Smuggler Pleads Guilty in Route Linked to 42 Missing Migrants, DOJ Warns of 20-Year Penalty
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 18
Summary
Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, 41, pleaded guilty in El Paso to alien-smuggling conspiracy after prosecutors tied him to a boat that left Colombia’s San Andrés Island in October 2023 with 42 people and never arrived in Nicaragua.
Court documents say he guided migrants to San Andrés, housed them, put them on boats and bribed Colombian Navy members for patrol intelligence, helping smugglers evade authorities on the first leg toward the United States.
Tysen Duva said the 42 aboard are presumed dead and warned the danger would not have ended on land, with smuggling routes through Central America often turning into trafficking and debt-based sexual exploitation.
Linero Pinto, extradited from Colombia after a 2024 charge and 2024 arrest, faces up to 20 years in prison; a case against alleged co-conspirator Hernando Manuel de la Cruz Rivera is still pending.
The Justice Department cast the case as part of Joint Task Force Alpha’s broader crackdown on transnational smuggling networks, which it says has produced 483 arrests, 436 convictions and 371 significant prison sentences.