Thread: CA: Oceanside man gets 41 months for smuggling IAs

Oceanside man gets 41 months for smuggling illegal immigrants
By: SCOTT MARSHAL

SAN DIEGO — An Oceanside man has been sentenced to nearly three and a half years in federal prison for his role in an illegal-immigrant smuggling operation based in North County, court documents show.

Ricardo Roberto Gonzalez-Camacena, 37, pleaded guilty in August to charges of conspiracy to transport and move illegal immigrants within the United States and filing a false tax return, according to court documents.

U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz also ordered Gonzalez-Camacena to forfeit to the United States his Oceanside residence and more than $343,000 in cash.


Gonzalez-Camacena’s attorney, Philip DeMassa, said Wednesday that his client received the sentence recommended in his plea agreement. The prison term was at the low end of what federal sentencing guidelines provided for, but was more severe than what other defendants in the case received because Moskowitz made a finding that Gonzalez-Camacena was the leader of the group, DeMassa said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos Arguello, who prosecuted the case, was in trial on another case and was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Gonzalez-Camacena’s wife, Luisa Gonzalez-Pizarro, 48, of Oceanside, pleaded guilty in September to charges of money laundering and filing a false tax return in connection with the smuggling operation and was sentenced to a year and nine months in federal prison.

Another woman, Valerie Northcutt, 29, of Yuma, Ariz., pleaded guilty last year to a conspiracy charge and was sentenced in September to four months in custody, with credit for 60 days already served. The remainder of her sentence was expected to be served in home confinement, Arguello said in September.

A federal grand jury indictment had alleged that the smuggling operation transported illegal immigrants on dates between May 25, 2002, and February 2004, and that the conspiracy continued through May 16, 2006. The indictment alleged the destinations included unspecified locations in Escondido and Vista.

In a news release in September, the U.S. Attorney’s office said that Gonzalez-Pizarro admitted that she and her husband were paid for arranging the transportation of 89 illegal immigrants to destinations in Southern California.

Moskowitz said in September that the cash the government seized in the case was “staggeringâ€

interesting. I live here and never heard anything about this. Glad they caught this scum.