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Man sentenced to 24 years in railcar smuggling deaths case
(11/22/05 - HOUSTON) - The accused leader of a South Texas smuggling ring was sentenced Monday to more than 24 years in prison for his role in the 2002 train car deaths of 11 illegal immigrants.

Juan Fernando Licea-Cedillo bought information about train schedules from Arnulfo Flores Jr., a former Union Pacific train conductor, so he could know when to put immigrants on trains northbound from the Rio Grande Valley.

Earlier this month Licea-Cedillo tried to withdraw his guilty plea to conspiring to transport and harbor illegal immigrants, but U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt on Monday determined his plea would stand and handed down a term of 24 years and four months.

Hoyt also sentenced Flores, 35, of Kingsville, to three years and five months in prison. He had pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport illegal immigrants, and Hoyt considered his cooperation with prosecutors in determining his sentence.

Prosecutors say Licea-Cedillo, 28, from Mexico, led an international smuggling ring from January 2000 through February 2003, charging up to $1,000.

On June 15, 2002, 11 mostly Central American immigrants were loaded into a grain hopper in Harlingen. It couldn't be opened from the inside.

Prosecutors said Licea-Cedillo lost track of the rail car after Border Patrol agents raided the train, but the trapped immigrants escaped detection and the train continued north. Shortly thereafter, they died of dehydration and hypothermia.

The rail car sat in a storage facility near Oklahoma City for four months, and was then sent to Denison, Iowa. A cleaning crew there discovered the mostly skeletonized remains. It took about seven months before the victims were identified through DNA tests.

Licea-Cedillo pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge last year, but tried to withdraw his plea, claiming his lawyers didn't explain to him the consequences of his admission. He told Hoyt through an interpreter he didn't know he would be held responsible for the deaths.

His lawyers were surprised by his request, which came after prosecutors aid they would seek a life sentence. But prosecutors noted Licea-Cedillo told Hoyt when he pleaded guilty that he knew the conspiracy resulted in deaths.

Licea-Cedillo and Flores were two of four members of the ring indicted on charges of smuggling and hiding illegal immigrants. The other two, Rogelio Hernandez Ramos, 40, and Guillermo Madrigal Ballesteros, 48, both from Mexico, remain fugitives.

The remains, returned to their home countries, were identified as Lesly Esmeralda Ferrufino, 26; Pedro Amador Lopez, 37; Rosibel Ferrufino, 24; Lely Elizabet Ferrufino, 35; and Isidro Avila Bueso, 38, all of Honduras; Juan Enrique Reyes Meza, 27; Omar Esparza Contreras, 23; and Roberto Esparza Rico, 23; all of Mexico; Mercedes Gertrudis Guido Lorente, 40, of Nicaragua; Domingo Ardon Sibrian, 36, of El Salvador; and Bayron Adner Acevedo Perez, 18, of Guatemala.