Much of the news related to human smuggling along with southwest border has focused on those Americans, often young adults, who risk prison time by transporting illegal aliens away from the border for a quick payday.
But agencies like Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have made great inroads in identifying and arresting the middle managers of smuggling enterprises – the coordinators who work on both sides of the border to ensure illegal aliens and “load” drivers meet up.
One such prolific coordinator has been identified as Adrian Duran-Estrada, who was sentenced in a federal courthouse in Tucson last Thursday to spend the next decade in prison in a case that involved the gruesome death of a 17-year-old boy who worked for Duran-Estrada as a foot guide, commonly called a coyote.
The 10-year sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Jennifer Zipps stems from an investigation initiated by HSI and ICE in early 2019 of a transnational alien smuggling organization based in southern Arizona.
Agents quickly came to believe Duran-Estrada was the ringleader for several smuggling operations coordinated out of his home in Three Points. He utilized GPS as well as the WhatsApp communication application, text messages, and voice calls to various co-conspirators to coordinate the movement of illegal aliens who needed transportation out of the Sasabe area.
Investigators would also come to learn that in late May 2019, a 17-year-old associate of Duran-Estrada was assigned to meet and feed a group of undocumented aliens who had recently crossed the border. The teen, identified only as J.A., was provided a vehicle to use but ended up being left behind by the group without water.
J.A. then got lost in the desert near Sasabe. Cellphone records show he exchanged increasingly panicked communications with Duran-Estrada in a desperate effort to be rescued.
Duran-Estrada argued prior to sentencing that he did everything possible to locate J.A., including sending an associate the GPS coordinates for where the teen was when one of the messages was sent. The associate reported being unable to find J.A., but court records show Duran-Estrada never notified authorities of the teen’s dire situation.
Hunters found J.A.’s remains in the desert a few months later. There was no sign of injury, leading the medical examiner to list probable cause of death as dehydration.
Items found near his body helped investigators link the teen’s death to Duran-Estrada’s criminal activities. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Fellrath noted in a pre-sentencing report that J.A.’s death did not end or even slow down Duran-Estrada’s operation.
Fellrath prosecuted Duran-Estrada and several of his co-conspirators under an April 2021 federal grand jury indictment. Duran-Estrada was taken into custody on a warrant in May 2021 and remained in federal custody of the U.S. Marshal Service pending trial, based in part on fears by a judge that the defendant would not appear in court as required.
In June 2022, Duran-Estrada accepted a negotiated plea agreement. It called for him to enter guilty pleas to Conspiracy to Transport Illegal Aliens and Unlawful Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon, both federal felonies.
Duran-Estrada also agreed in the plea deal to the entry of a $20,000 judgment, representing the proceeds he obtained from three offense dates in 2019. In addition, he relinquished all rights to two handguns and one rifle seized by federal agents as part of the investigation.
The plea deal stipulated that Duran-Estrada fell into a sentencing range of 92 to 120 months in the Federal Bureau of Prisons based on his criminal history. But the deal provided him an opportunity to argue for a variance below the stipulated range.
Factors taken into consideration at sentencing included the nature of the base offense as well as the fact a firearm was involved. The judge also considered that Duran-Estrada used or attempted to use minors commit his offense.
Another factor was that one of Duran-Estrada’s smuggling incidents involved a driver who transported 10 illegal aliens “stacked on one another while driving at excessive spends” which intentionally or recklessly created “a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another person.”
But the biggest factor involved J.A.’s death. Fellrath, the federal prosecutor, argued to Judge Zipps that the teen’s death had a “causal connection” to Duran-Estrada’s illegal activities.
In response, defense attorney Thomas Higgins filed a sentencing memorandum asking the judge to “find that all the mitigating circumstances in this case outweigh any aggravating circumstances and sentence him accordingly,” and impose a sentence not to exceed 92 months.
On April 6, the judge imposed the maximum 10-year sentence for each of the two charges in Duran-Estrada’s plea deal. The sentences will be served concurrently instead of consecutively.
Upon his release from BOP, Duran-Estrada must serve three years of supervised release.
All of Duran-Estrada’s co-conspirators named in the 2021 indictment had already resolved their cases prior to his sentencing hearing.
Duran-Estrada’s girlfriend, Kaitlan Rochelle Cox, lived with him in Three Points. They are the parents of two young children.
Cox, also known as Kaitlan Jacobs, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, for which she was sentenced in January 2023 to 27 months in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, followed by three years of supervised release.
Another co-conspirator, Arturo Alday Cordova, was ordered to serve eight months with the Federal Bureau of Prisons followed by three years supervised release as part of a plea deal.
Meanwhile, co-conspirator Bruce Rivera pleaded guilty to one count of attempted transportation of an illegal alien. He was finally sentenced last month to three years of federal probation.
A juvenile co-conspirator is referenced in the indictment and other court records but the outcome of any prosecution is not divulged.