Calif. entrant-smuggler gets 5-year term
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.21.2008
A California man will spend five years in federal prison for trying to smuggle eight illegal immigrants into the United States last year, a U.S. district judge decided Thursday in Tucson.
Kenneth George Claunch Jr., was found guilty in February of multiple illegal entrant smuggling charges, including conspiracy to transport illegal aliens for profit with endangerment, a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
In April 2007, Claunch had tried to smuggle illegal immigrants by driving a carpet-cleaning van through the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials found five men hidden in one large metal container and one man and two women hidden in another one. All eight said they were not U.S. citizens and did not have legal permission to be in the United States, the release said.
Three of the men were witnesses at Claunch's trial and said that, while they were in the containers, they had breathing problems and had started to become dizzy, the release said.
Claunch, 54, is from Bakersfield, Calif.






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