Published: May 12, 2014 Updated: 2:36 p.m.
BY CLAUDIA KOERNER / STAFF WRITER
Orange County Register

SANTA ANA – A man was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for his part in an attempt to smuggle 20 people into the country.

Jose Ricardo Paleta Tula, 44, was arrested along with three other men in June 2013 after a 25-foot boat landed at Crystal Cove State Park. Tula was on shore, signaling with the light of his cell phone where the boat should land, court documents said.

Of the three smugglers who were on the boat, Jaime Hernandez Gonzalez is scheduled to be sentenced next week. Jaime Verdin Gonzalez and Fernando Martinez Cuevas are serving sentences of 30 and 46 months, respectively, in federal prisons.

According to court documents, the boat traveled from Mexico to Laguna Beach with Hernandez Gonzalez, Verdin Gonzalez and Martinez Cuevas as well as the passengers. After authorities spotted the boat on shore, they searched the area and ultimately took 24 people into custody, many of them in wetsuits, layers of clothing and with flotation devices.

According to the documents, Tula told a Border Patrol agent that he had arrived in the U.S. about a week before. His own trip into the U.S. left him owing $8,000 to a man known as “El Gato,” a debt that would have been erased if he completed the signaling job.

In August 2013, he pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting an alien convicted of an aggravated felony to enter the United States. One of the passengers on the boat had previously been convicted of possessing methamphetamine for sale. In his plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, other charges of conspiring to bring aliens to the U.S. and bringing aliens to the U.S. for financial gain were dismissed.

A judge sentenced Tula on April 29 to 30 months in prison and three years probation. As part of the terms of his probation, the judge ordered him to comply with U.S. immigration rules and regulations.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials screen inmates who are in the country illegally. Those who are determined to have records making them a threat to public safety are removed from the U.S., according to the agency.

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