10News: Woman, 85, to be sentenced for smuggling immigrants

By 10News
5:21 a.m., Dec. 1, 2011

Felicitas Gurrola is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. She stands out at a time when the smuggling business has turned increasingly violent and is dominated by large, mostly male operations that choose perilous routes through remote mountains and deserts.

Investigators say Gurrola ran a mostly female smuggling ring and picked the busiest U.S. border post for her crossing of choice. The legal U.S. resident had customers assume false identities to get past border inspectors.

Before her arrest in April, Gurrola spoke in a secretly recorded conversation of using counterfeit immigration documents to get immigrants into the country for "over 40 years," according to court records.

Her attorney said she ran her business for four decades without hurting any of her customers.

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