Three New Mexico men charged with migrant smuggling, 2 accused of witness killing

Three New Mexico men have been charged in a federal superseding indictment with conspiring to smuggle migrants across the border — and two of them face additional charges of conspiring to kill a witness in retaliation for providing law enforcement investigators with information about the smuggling operation, prosecutors said.

Wilfrido Saenz, 29, Ignacio Jaramillo, 22, and his brother Ismael Jaramillo, 35, all of New Mexico, were charged with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens between June 2021 and April 2024, according to court documents. Saenz and Ignacio Jaramillo also face charges related to an alleged conspiracy to retaliate against a witness who provided law enforcement with information about the smuggling scheme, resulting in her death, prosecutors said.

The alleged witness-retaliation conspiracy took place in April 2024, according to the indictment.

If convicted of the witness-retaliation conspiracy charge, Saenz and Ignacio Jaramillo each face a maximum sentence of life in prison. All three defendants face up to five years on the alien-smuggling conspiracy count. Saenz and Ignacio Jaramillo are also each charged with two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Both men have prior criminal records. Saenz was previously convicted of alien smuggling, fraudulently obtaining a motor vehicle and possession of drug paraphernalia, among other offenses, according to court documents. Ignacio Jaramillo was previously convicted in New Mexico of aggravated assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon and aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer, prosecutors said.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said the case illustrates the lethal potential of human smuggling networks.

“The criminal networks engaging in this do not care about the people they are smuggling,” Duva said. “They only care about money and themselves. They endanger lives and will commit heinous crimes if they believe their network has been exposed and their livelihood is on the line.”

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison for the District of New Mexico called the allegations a reflection of “the ruthless nature of these criminal organizations and the lengths they are willing to go to protect their operations.”

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI, among other agencies. The investigation and indictment were supported by Joint Task Force Alpha, and the prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established under Executive Order 14159. The task force targets cartels, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in the United States.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.