Mexican Woman Gets Prison for Running Human Smuggling Ring

By Fred Shuster / City News Service

A Mexican national was sentenced today to 30 months in federal prison for running a human smuggling ring that relied on non-Spanish-speaking drivers to transport undocumented immigrants to Los Angeles from the border inside vehicle trunks or hidden in secret compartments.

Maria Luisa Lopez-Diaz,  who lived in Compton, is expected to face deportation proceedings after she is released from prison, U.S. District Judge Dolly M.Gee said.

Speaking through tears, Lopez-Diaz begged the judge to accept her apology.

"I'm sorry to the United States of America,'' the 61-year-old defendant said. "I regret it very, very much. This is my country and I'm very, very sorry.''

Before imposing sentence, Gee referred to Lopez-Diaz's "long history of arrests and misdemeanor convictions'' prior to the current case, in which she pleaded guilty in November to a single federal count of conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain.

As head of the operation, Lopez-Diaz lined up the illegals to be smuggled, bought the vehicles, recruited drivers from South Los Angeles and provided them with cell phones and expenses, according to the indictment handed down in January 2012.

Three co-defendants are set for sentencing next month.

According to investigators, the ring charged undocumented immigrants anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 to be smuggled from the border to Los Angeles.

For a one-year period beginning in January 2010, it is estimated the organization was smuggling several dozen individuals a month into the Los Angeles area.

The decision to use non-Spanish-speaking, black drivers was a calculated attempt to try to reduce the risk of detection and prosecution, according to federal prosecutors, who said the drivers were paid $300 to $800 for every immigrant successfully smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border.

The indictment stemmed from a two-year probe launched in 2010 after Border Patrol agents began encountering an increasing number of black drivers with up to a half-dozen immigrants hidden in their car trucks, federal officials said.

The smugglers apparently believed non-bilingual black drivers were less likely to arouse suspicion. In the event they were stopped, the drivers' inability to speak Spanish and communicate with their passengers suggested the drivers had limited information about the broader scheme, investigators said.

Finally, by keeping the number of undocumented immigrants in each smuggling attempt to six or less, the defendants figured there was less chance authorities would seek criminal charges against the individual drivers, according to prosecutors.

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