WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. — 1 of 2 men charged with 1st-degree human trafficking Thursday, May 24, 2024, was sentenced in US District Court in Seattle to 15 months in prison.
Jesus Ortiz-Plata, 46, of Independence, Oregon, was arrested in Everett, with three non-citizens who had been smuggled into the US from Canada. On November 20, 2024, Ortiz-Plata pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport certain aliens for profit.
At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said it was “callous” to send people across the border in freight cars. “He was a commercial smuggler. He wasn’t doing this for altruistic purposes, he did it for cold hard cash,” Judge Robart said.
Since late 2022, as Border Patrol and investigators encountered non-citizens who had illegally attempted to cross the border. As part of the investigation, agents frequently encountered a phone number that was later linked to Ortiz-Plata. After substantial investigation, Ortiz-Plata was identified, and law enforcement obtained court permission to track his location. After months of surveillance and monitoring, on May 23, 2024, Ortiz-Plata traveled from his home in Oregon and was surveilled by agents from Seattle to an apartment in Everett. Ortiz-Plata left the apartment with three men – all non-citizens who entered his vehicle. All four were taken into custody. Two had crossed the border in a freight train car and one claimed he had walked across the border and been picked up on the U.S. side.
– U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Washington (February 11, 2025)
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