Man gets 15 months for driving vanload of illegal immigrants to SC

June 13, 2007 10:00 PM EDT

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - For transporting a vanload of illegal immigrants, a 24-year-old is facing a sentence of 15 months imprisonment.

Ricardo Rios-Machuca was driving 12 other Mexicans when his van was stopped in Florence. Rios-Machuca himself is also in the US illegally.

Investigators say he was transporting the Mexicans from California to South Carolina for employment.

The traffic stop happened on March First. The other 12 have already been sentenced and are in the deportation process.

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