Smuggler who struck agent is sentenced
Prolific human trafficker gets 8 years and 3 months for assault with a rock.
SAN DIEGO — A prolific human smuggler who struck a Border Patrol agent in the face with a rock during a failed smuggling attempt in the mountains in southeastern San Diego County was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison.
Martel Valencia-Cortez, 39, was convicted in May of assault on a federal officer and three counts of human smuggling. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff imposed a sentence of eight years and three months, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Border Patrol agents spotted the Mexican national guiding 15 people across mountainous terrain in Jacumba on the chilly night of Nov. 15, 2015. Valencia-Cortez ran from the group when agents intercepted them. As agents closed in, he hurled a softball-size rock from about 30 feet away, hitting one of them in the face.
Valencia-Cortez ran back across the U.S.-Mexico border and escaped, only to turn himself in to authorities at the San Ysidro Port of Entry six months later.
Border Patrol officials say he is one of San Diego’s most dangerous human smugglers, known for assaulting agents, threatening people he’s smuggled, and driving the wrong way on streets and freeways to evade arrest.
Less than two months before the assault with the rock, Valencia-Cortez had been deported to Mexico after serving nearly three years for human smuggling.