On Wednesday, Fermin Herrera-Angeles accepted a plea agreement for Transportation of Illegal Aliens for Private Financial Gain.
Court records said that a Texas DPS officer pulled over Herrera-Angeles in Floydada for speeding in May of 2018. He had nine passengers in a minivan, according to court records.
“The passengers of the van told immigration officials that they were present in the country illegally and that Herrera-Angeles received payment for transporting them to various locations in the United States,” court records said.
Exact dollar figures were not used in court records, but in one case a family paid “several thousand dollars” for a woman to be smuggled into the United States and taken to Seattle.
Herrera-Angeles admitted that he knew they were in the country illegally, and that they would have found other means of traveling if they had been here legally.
The plea agreement was entered in federal court in Lubbock. If the deal is approved by a federal judge, Herrera-Angeles will be sentenced at a later date to no more than 10 years in prison.
Related Story: Suspect arrested for “alien smuggling” in Floydada