Mortal human smuggling operation left 1 dead, 1 sentenced

Phoenix – A Glendale man was sentenced to more than 3 years in prison on Tuesday for his role in a mortal human smuggling operation that took place last year, authorities said.

Steven Beltran-Lugo, 19, helped transport two undocumented migrants in March 2024, according to the United States Prosecutor’s Office for the Arizona district.

The sentence occurred after Beltrán Lugo declared himself guilty of conspiring of transporting undocumented migrants for profit and endangering a person’s life, which caused death, on October 1, 2024.

Glendale man involved in the mortal human smuggling operation

The mortal Human smuggling The operation took place on March 6, 2024, after Beltran-Lugo and his Coacusado, César Velázquez-Munoz, collected two undocumented migrants near the border between the United States and Mexico, prosecutors said.

Beltran-Lugo, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, spoke with a smuggling coordinator based in Phoenix by phone during the truck and when the police began to follow the vehicle.

After the authorities ordered non -citizens to leave the vehicle, one of the migrants jumped while moving to about 45 mph.

Velázquez-Munoz then accelerated the vehicle, at which time the second migrant jumped and hit the pavement strongly, triggering a cerebral hemorrhage and internal hemorrhage, prosecutors said.

The second migrant died of wounds in a hospital two days later.

Velázquez-Munoz will receive his sentence on March 31.