Del Rio corridor smuggler gets 16-year prison sentence for violent conspiracy

Federal prosecutors said a Del Rio corridor smuggling operation crossed from illegal transport into hostage-taking, sexual violence and threats against a child, and that level of brutality led to a 195-month sentence for Armando Garcia-Martinez. The 43-year-old Mexican national, also known as Leche, El Compadre and Mando, was sentenced in Del Rio on June 5 for an aggravated smuggling conspiracy that federal officials said put lives in jeopardy.

The Justice Department identified Garcia-Martinez as both a recruiter and a driver for the organization, saying he averaged two to three smuggling trips a week. Prosecutors said the network moved migrants from Mexico to San Antonio, with some then sent onward to Austin, a route that ran through the same corridor Val Verde County residents know as a major pressure point for federal enforcement.

The most alarming episode in the case came in 2023, when three people being held by the organization, a man, a pregnant woman and their 7-year-old child, were kept in a stash house while smugglers demanded payment by electronic wire transfers. Federal filings say a relative paid at least $1,000 on July 9, 2023, but the demands continued for more money to different accounts as the family remained trapped. Prosecutors said members of the group sexually assaulted the pregnant woman and threatened to kill the child and sell the woman’s unborn baby if the payments were not made.

Garcia-Martinez was indicted in April 2024, arrested in May 2024 and pleaded guilty in November 2024. His sentence now joins a string of lengthy federal penalties in the same case, including 30 years for Edwin Alfredo Barrientos-Mateo, 212 months for Juan Antonio Flores and 180 months for Nelson Abilio Castro-Zelaya. Federal officials said the case is still moving through the courts, with other co-defendants having pleaded guilty and awaiting sentencing.

Investigators from Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety worked the case with help from the Eagle Pass, Austin and Houston police departments and the Comal County Sheriff’s Office. The Justice Department said the prosecution was part of Operation Take Back America, a campaign aimed at transnational criminal organizations, and the sentence signals that federal courts in the Del Rio area are treating the organizers of violent smuggling schemes as more than just drivers behind the wheel.