A 46-year-old Oregon man who was arrested last May for helping smuggle people across the U.S./Canada border was sentenced in federal court to 15 months in prison on February 10.
Jesus Ortiz-Plata, 46, of Independence, Oregon, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle following him pleading guilty to conspiracy to transport certain aliens for profit on November 20, 2024. Ortiz-Plata was arrested on May 23, 2024, after Homeland Security Investigations linked Ortiz-Plata to assisting with illegal smuggling from the Blaine and Sumas area to Oregon and California.
In late 2022, U.S. Border Patrol investigators began seeing Ortiz-Plata’s phone number as a contact for people caught crossing the U.S./Canada border illegally. One of those cases included an August 2023 apprehension of 29 people who tried to enter the U.S. illegally on a train from Canada.
On May 23, 2024, Ortiz-Plata was arrested in Everett alongside Juan Pablo Cuellar-Medina, then 35, of Everett, and three people who had been smuggled. Both Ortiz-Plata and Cuellar-Medina were charged with conspiracy to commit illegal transportation of a non-citizen for private financial gain, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or $250,000. Federal court records show Cuellar-Medina’s charge was dismissed without prejudice on October 11, 2024, meaning the case could be refiled in the future.
Two of the men smuggled illegally in May 2024 had crossed the U.S./Canada border in a freight train, while another said he had walked across the border, according to federal court records. Court records showed the two men who crossed by train paid $2,000 each and were reportedly not given food or water while in Everett.
U.S. District Judge James L. Robart described the crime as “callous,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
“He was a commercial smuggler,” Robart said of Ortiz-Plata. “He wasn’t doing this for altruistic purposes, he did it for cold hard cash.”
The court recommended Ortiz-Plata serve time at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, followed by three years of supervised release.
Ortiz-Plata’s federal public defender, Jesse Cantor, declined to comment.
“These transnational smuggling groups charge thousands of dollars and risk the lives of those trying to reach the U.S.,” U.S. attorney Tessa Gorman wrote in a statement. “We will continue to investigate these smuggling groups to hold members accountable.”
