A man from Chattanooga was ordered to serve 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to the unlawful transport of illegal aliens.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced this week that 38-year-old Josef Alquan Rutley (pictured above) pleaded guilty on February 18 for a December 2024 stop at the Falfurrias Border Patrol Station in Cantu Addition, Texas in which he was found to be transporting 22 illegal aliens locked inside a tractor trailer.
On December 19, 2024, Rutley approached the border patrol checkpoint driving a tractor trailer and claimed he was traveling to Laredo, according to court evidence cited by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Rutley denied having any passengers and said he was looking for a load; however, law enforcement authorities said he appeared “nervous” and “avoided eye contact,” which prompted a referral to secondary inspection.
An x-ray scan of the tractor trailer Rutkey was driving revealed 22 illegal aliens were locked inside the trailer with “no means of escape.”
All of the aliens found inside the trailer were from the countries of Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
In addition to his 18-month sentence in federal prison, Rutley was also ordered by U.S. District Judge David Morales to undergo three years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei said Rutley’s case is an example of how the Southern District of Texas is “doing everything it can to deter people from being smuggled and to punish those who make their money by trafficking other human beings.”
Rutley’s case was investigated as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Operation Take Back America, which was launched in March at the direction of President Donald Trump to “repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.”
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Only 18 months for selling out the USA?!!!
That is a disgrace.
This man should get more than 18 mos in prison.
He is a traitor. Same as all in the Biden Administration.
What does it take to call it out for what it is?
He apparently had no regard for endangering American Citizens.