Owner of Downtown El Paso hotel sentenced to 15 years in immigrant smuggling case

By Marty Schladen/El Paso Times
Posted: 10/21/2011 04:50:24 PM MDT


The owner of a Downtown hotel was sentenced in federal court on Friday to 15 years in prison for his role in a 20-year scheme to smuggle and harbor thousands of undocumented immigrants, U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo sentenced Song U. Chon, 55, owner of the Gateway Hotel at 104 S. Stanton St., after he was convicted in February of conspiracy to smuggle, money laundering and making false statements on tax forms.

Fines, restitution and other monetary judgments against Chon totaled $2.8 million. Montalvo also ordered Chon's company to pay $874,000.

From 2003 to 2009, at least 5,000 undocumented immigrants from Mexico, South and Central America, Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia were harbored at the hotel, Pitman said.


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