A man who admitted he was a leader of a major organization that smuggled unauthorized migrants into the United States pleaded guilty in federal court last week.

Felipe de Jesus Rosales-Herrera, 38, of Riverside, admitted that he employed foot guides to lead immigrants over the border and drivers to pick them up on the U.S. side and deliver them to a stash house. Rosales-Herrera said that he charged approximately $10,000 per immigrant. According to court documents, some of the smuggling events resulted in high-speed chaos and crashes. One of the crashes occurred on Christmas Day, 2021, which resulted in the death of one migrant and two others with serious injuries. Rosales-Herrera will be sentenced on October 11, 2024.

Co-defendant Jose Luis Alejo-Cruz, 23, of Long Beach, was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison and another co-defendant, John Douglas Oglesby III, 20, from Chesapeake, Virginia, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison.