Texas man gets 14 years for immigrant smuggling operation that killed 2

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DEL RIO, Texas - A Texas resident was one of the defendants to be sentenced this week for his role in an immigrant smuggling operation that resulted in the deaths of two undocumented migrants. 

Texas smuggling operation sentences

Jerry Lee Anderson, 29, is a resident of Spring, located near Houston. He, along with Orlin Wilfredo Padilla-Murillo, 25, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, was sentenced to prison this week by Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses, according to a Friday release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Texas. 

Anderson was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and Padilla-Murillo received a little less than 16 years. Michael Demond Kennedy, an "alien smuggling organization" (ASO) member, was also sentenced in recent weeks, and received 7.25 years for his role. 

What's next:

Another co-defendant, Rashad Jermaine Joshua, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 7.

Texas deadly smuggling operation

The backstory:

The sentences come as a result of an October 2022 incident in which a single-vehicle crash resulted in the deaths of load driver and two undocumented immigrants, along with the serious injury of two additional undocumented immigrants. 

It was found in the following investigation that the vehicle, which Kennedy was in at the time, was linked to Anderson and Padilla-Murillo, who worked to organize the smuggling trips. Padilla-Murillo's specific job was to recruit load drivers to pick up immigrants to smuggle across the border from Eagle Pass to Houston, splitting the earnings with Anderson and the driver.

In one incident connected to the ASO, a horse trailer was found to be attempting to smuggle 11 undocumented immigrants through Galveston County. 

According to the release, the ASO transported at least 100 undocumented immigrants during the whole operation, collected an average of $10,000 from each undocumented immigrant to be smuggled, and gathered a total of more than $1 million.