Chula Vista woman sentenced for smuggling immigrants

UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM
6:04 p.m. September 12, 2008

SAN DIEGO – A Chula Vista woman who admitted smuggling more than 100 illegal immigrants into the United States during a seven-year span was sentenced Friday to more than five years in federal prison.
Marisela Castro-Juarez, 38, was sentenced to 63 months in custody by U.S. District Court Judge Janis L. Sammartino. The judge also ordered her to forfeit her house in Chula Vista, valued at nearly $600,000. Castro-Juarez pleaded guilty in May to charges stemming from migrant smuggling.
In imposing sentence, Sammartino said that Castro-Juarez led a long-term migrant smuggling ring that operated between 2001 and her arrest earlier this year, making more than $590,000 in profits, which she used to buy the house.
In addition to prison time and the forfeiture, Castro-Juarez also was ordered to have three years of supervised release.

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