A guard tower and razor wire at a prison in Texas. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
DEL RIO, Texas - An Eagle Pass man was sentenced to 170 months in federal prison Monday for his role in a human smuggling operation that involved the kidnapping, extortion and sexual assault of a family.
Rodolfo Daniel De Hoyos, 22, was sentenced in a Del Rio federal court after pleading guilty in November 2024 to conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens, a charge that included causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy.
Criminal network exposed
Big picture view:
According to court records, De Hoyos’s criminal involvement was first detected in November 2021, when a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper stopped his vehicle in Kinney County. The trooper found three Guatemalan nationals in the vehicle, all dressed in camouflage gear. De Hoyos admitted he was transporting the individuals to Del Rio for $1,500.
De Hoyos was arrested again in August 2023 for transporting a family of migrants from San Antonio to Austin. Investigators later determined that the family, a man, a pregnant woman, and their seven-year-old child, had been taken hostage by an Alien Smuggling Organization (ASO) associated with De Hoyos’s co-conspirator, Anthony Ballones Jr.
Court documents detail a pattern of extreme violence used by the organization to extort money from the family's relatives. Beyond the sexual assault of the pregnant woman, members of the organization threatened to kill the seven-year-old boy and sell the woman's unborn baby if additional payments were not made. A relative paid at least $1,000 in July 2023, but the organization continued to demand further payments.
Sentencing outcomes
De Hoyos is the fifth defendant to be sentenced in the case, with the group receiving a combined total of 89 years in federal prison.
Other sentences handed down by Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses include:
- Edwin Alfredo Barrientos-Mateo: 360 months
- Juan Antonio Flores: 212 months
- Nelson Abilio Castro-Zelaya: 180 months
- Tomas Estrada-Torres: 151 months
Four other co-defendants have pleaded guilty and are currently awaiting sentencing. They have been identified as Ambar Obregon, Pedro Ruiz Gonzalez, Armando Garcia-Martinez, and Anthony Ballones Jr.
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