The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday the sentencing of a Phoenix man who led a human smuggling ring which moved illegal immigrants from Central America and held them in Arizona before driving them to destinations across the United States.
Tony Cardenas, a 36-year-old man from Phoenix, was sentenced to four years in prison and three years of supervised release earlier this month for his role as “the leader of a Phoenix-based human-smuggling operation” involving a total of at least 19 criminals, the DOJ announced. Cardenas is of no known relation to U.S. Representative Tony Cardenas (D-CA-29).
A press release by the DOJ revealed that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – Sells and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) began investigating Cardenas and his criminal organization in 2018.
Investigators shortly discovered illegal immigrants “being moved from Central America and Mexico to the Tohono O’odham Nation where they were directed to nearby stash houses or picked up and taken to stash houses in the Tucson and Phoenix areas,” and identified Cardenas and his criminal associates.
The investigation ultimately determined that Cardenas and his associates used “stash houses” to hold illegal immigrants in Phoenix “until final payment was received” for their illegal transportation into the United States.
After the final payments were made, the DOJ explains the illegal immigrants “were driven to their final destinations throughout the United States.”
Investigators with IRS-CI identified more than $1 million spread among “numerous co-conspirators who were using their bank accounts and money services” as part of the criminal organization.
An additional 18 members in Cardenas’ criminal organization have also been convicted, the agency noted.
The sentencing comes as many Americans grow more concerned with the negative consequences of unchecked illegal immigration following the killing of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was slain on a college campus. Riley’s alleged assailant, Jose Ibarra, illegally immigrated to the United States in 2022 with his wife and her child.
President Joe Biden was urged to mention Riley during his State of the Union speech by multiple Republicans, including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA-14) and Andy Ogles (R-TN-05). Amid jeers, Biden mistakenly referred to the student as “Lincoln Riley” while delivering the speech.
Biden also drew sharp criticism from Democrats for referring to Ibarra as “an illegal,” with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledging the president “should have said ‘undocumented.'”
Another crime involving illegal immigrants occurred in Arizona earlier this month, when the Navajo County Sheriff’s Department (NCSO) confirmed five men who were arrested for allegedly robbing a train in Joseph City are illegal immigrants and were being held on a federal detainer.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Human Smugglers” by Chief Patrol Agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector John Modlin.
