Mexican smuggler pleads guilty to conspiracy over U.S.-Mexico border tunnel

A key figure in a cross-border smuggling ring, Luis Carlos Davalos-Lopez, entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to bring migrants into the United States. Investigators uncovered a tunnel stretching roughly 1,000 feet from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, into El Paso, Texas, where it merged with the city’s storm-drain network. Built by the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the tunnel enabled smugglers to charge migrants as much as $30,000 and move them underground to a modified box truck that lifted them through a manhole.

Wiretaps and surveillance tied the operation to broader drug and firearms trafficking, and the plea carries a potential ten-year prison term. U.S. Attorney Justin Simmons highlighted the case as part of a broader push to label cartel activities as terrorism, a policy instituted by the Trump administration. An associate, Maria Del Rosario Navarro-Sanchez, previously pleaded guilty to providing material support to the CJNG, underscoring the shift toward harsher terrorism-related charges for cartel crimes.