Smugglers plead guilty after leading three women to death on U.S.-Mexico border

Two Mexican migrant smugglers pleaded guilty Tuesday to contributing to the deaths of three illegal immigrant women, whom they led across the border in February, then abandoned to perish in the jaws of a snowstorm.

Cecilio and Ricardo Rios-Quinones, who are brothers, served as foot guides for the three women, who by tragic coincidence were sisters.

The Washington Times highlighted the case in June as part of a report on the Border Patrol’s search and rescue mission, which often goes under the radar. Agents managed to rescue the two brothers, but the women they were smuggling were already dead or dying by the time they reached the remote mountainous location where the men had led them.

“These three young women lost their lives in horrible circumstances, despite the heroic efforts of many who tried to save them,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer. “This is a tragedy that never should have happened. Unfortunately, migrant deaths are not uncommon because selfish smugglers don’t hesitate to place vulnerable victims in grave danger to make money.”

Border Patrol agents who attempted the rescue told The Times that the smugglers led the women over the border with only light clothing and too little water, into mountains where temperatures hovered around freezing.

Then the snow storm hit, and the smugglers realized it was no longer a question of whether they’d make it in, but whether they’d survive.

Border Patrol’s Search, Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) team was called out and responded, though it took hours to drive to the nearest point possible, then hike in. When they reached the location they found the two smuggler brothers, who then pointed to where they’d left the sisters.

Two of the women were already dead. A third was alive, and the agents managed to wrangle a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department helicopter to try to make a rescue flight. But the chopper almost crashed in the high winds and had to wave off, and the third sister also died.

The agents, themselves feeling the effects of exposure, brought the two smuggler brothers out with them.

Homeland Security continued to build the case against the two men, who they say worked for a woman known as “Yoli” who ran a smuggling operation out of Tijuana. Agents arresting three other suspected smugglers tied to Yoli who spilled more details on the brothers’ involvement.

It turned out one brother was teaching the other the smuggling route that February day, and they were earning $800 for each migrant they guided into the U.S.

The two brothers face sentencing in November.

“Justice has been served with these guilty pleas,” said Aaron Heitke, chief patrol agent for the San Diego sector of the Border Patrol. “Unfortunately, the families of those lost in this tragedy will never be whole. These young woman suffered and died at the hands of smugglers who never saw them as people, but only as commodities that could be exploited.”