Crime partners get prison time for smuggling migrants

Two San Antonio women and two other members of a human smuggling ring have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 6.5 to 15 years for trafficking migrants for cash.

A federal judge in Del Rio sentenced Eva Maria Galeas, 43, to 15 years and her daughter, Lisa Marie Ortega, 25, to 13 years for their roles in what prosecutors described as “an extensive human smuggling organization” that reached into Mexico and Honduras.

Members of the smuggling outfit transported undocumented migrants, hid them in rented stash houses and used the fees they collected to pay drivers and fund personal purchases, including cars, the U.S. Justice Department said.

The trafficking ring was a family business. It was led by Galeas’ husband, Roberto Galeas-Mejia, 47, of Honduras. He is also Ortega’s stepfather. He oversaw “activities that included the transportation

and harboring of undocumented noncitizens and the coordination of payments,” the Justice Department said.

Authorities found more than $600,000 in U.S. currency in a safe during a search of the home Galeas-Mejia shared with his wife and stepdaughter. U.S. District Judge Alia Moses ordered the money forfeited under laws that

allow the government to seize the proceeds of criminal activity.

Galeas-Mejia’s two sisters, Sandra Galeas-Mejia, 48, of Mexico, and Norma Galeas-Mejia, 52, of Honduras were part of the conspiracy. They and the two other women handled the money, funneling it through their bank accounts. They paid drivers, rented the stash houses and paid the stash house operators.

Federal agents arrested the four women in 2019. In 2022, all of the defendants were either convicted of or pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and related offenses.

Judge Moses sentenced Sandra Galeas-Mejia to seven years in prison and her sister Norma to 61⁄2 years. Their brother Roberto remains in federal custody while he awaits sentencing.

Human trafficking is a lucrative business along the border, and South Texas is one of the busiest corridors for transporting migrants.

Smugglers routinely bundle migrants into rail cars or tractor trailers to transport them across the state in suffocating conditions.

In June 2022, some 53 immigrants from Mexico and Central America were found dead or dying in a trailer abandoned on a desolate stretch of San Antonio’s Southwest Side. In July 2017, 10 people died after being transported in a trailer from Laredo to a Walmart parking lot on the South Side.

Maverick County Sheriff’s Office An immigrant was found dead after being trapped in a boxcar. A judge sentenced four women to prison for trafficking migrants.