The Cuban national, who had been people smuggling from at least November 2019, must forfeit his 160-acre ranch and $157,000 in cash that was found stashed, as well as trucks and an arsenal of weapons and ammunition. He also has to pay a $520,000 fine.
A Texas rancher who worked with a Mexican drug cartel to smuggle illegal immigrants and weed into the US was slapped with a 38-year prison sentence, prosecutors said.
Cuban citizen Gilberto Morales, 57, coordinated with a cartel out of Porvenir, Chihuahua to smuggle immigrants and more than a ton of marijuana a month across the Rio Grande through his ranch in Fort Hancock, 40 miles east of El Paso, according the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
“For more than a year, Gilberto Morales operated his very own smuggling corridor through his ranch right on the Rio Grande, working with a Mexican drug trafficking organization in smuggling bulk marijuana and undocumented immigrants,” said US Attorney Ashley C. Hoff.
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