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Two Albuquerque men, Mexican citizen sentenced in deadly crash during smuggling attempt
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Two men from Albuquerque and a Mexican national were sentenced to federal prison in a 2023 smuggling attempt that ended with a crash that killed two migrants in southern New Mexico.
The driver at the time, Jose Hermosillo-Camarillo, 22, of Albuquerque, was sentenced to 12 years; Jesus Soto, 20, of Mexico, to 18 months; and Sergio Diaz, 20, of Albuquerque, to 3½ years.
Hermosillo-Camarillo, Soto and Diaz each previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport an illegal alien resulting in death.
After their release, Hermosillo-Camarillo and Diaz will be under three years of supervised release and Soto will “face deportation hearings,” according to a news release sent Friday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico.
“Survivors revealed that smugglers charged approximately $1,500 per person for transportation,” the release states. “They also identified Soto as the foot guide that led them across the U.S.-Mexico border to meet Hermosillo-Camarillo and Diaz.”
On June 23, Hermosillo-Camarillo was driving Soto and four undocumented migrants through Santa Teresa at high speeds and running red lights. Diaz drove four undocumented migrants in a separate vehicle “in tandem” with the other. At one point, Hermosillo-Camarillo made an illegal U-turn and collided with a semi-tractor trailer.
After the crash, Diaz fled authorities in the second vehicle into Texas, driving recklessly and “evading capture until his vehicle was immobilized by a tire deflation device.” The migrants tried to run before Border Patrol detained them.
“Court records revealed that Hermosillo-Camarillo had been arrested previously for similar offenses in New Mexico and Arizona but had not been charged,” according to the release.
