An indictment was unsealed yesterday in the District of Vermont charging a Dominican national and a U.S. citizen with conspiring to smuggle foreign nationals from Mexico and Central and South America into the United States via the U.S.-Canada border.
According to court documents, Francisco Antonio Luna Rosado, 27, an illegal alien from the Dominican Republic, and Jesus Hernandez Ortiz, 37, of Puerto Rico, are charged with one count of conspiracy to illegally bring aliens to the United States and 12 counts of illegally bringing aliens to the United States for the purpose of private financial gain related to a Sept. 17, 2023, smuggling event. Luna Rosado is also charged with two counts of transactional money laundering for engaging in monetary transactions involving property derived from smuggling activities.
Image captured during the movement of alien groups that Luna Rosado allegedly guided through the Canadian and Vermont border to his human smuggling drivers.
Luna Rosado allegedly directed smuggling operations from at least Aug. 2022 through at least March 2024, coordinating the illegal transport of aliens across the U.S.-Canada border into northern Vermont. Aliens arrived by airplane, from their origin country to southern Canada. Luna Rosado then used live shared cellular location data to guide the aliens across the Canadian border to northern Vermont. From northern Vermont, Luna Rosado used an approximate 70-person encrypted chat platform to communicate and arrange for drivers, including Hernandez Ortiz, to pick up aliens at the northern border. The drivers then drove the aliens from Vermont to New York City. Upon arrival in New York City, the aliens paid Luna Rosado in U.S. currency. Luna Rosado deposited and withdrew this money into and through the U.S. financial system, in amounts exceeding $10,000.
Images of the rented Home Depot van, which Hernandez drove during an alleged smuggling event, that law enforcement stopped.
Text messages between Luna Rosado (left side in blue) and Hernandez (right side in green), with translations into English, discussing the alleged smuggling operation.
Text messages between Luna Rosado and aliens during an alleged smuggling event.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan A. Ophardt for the District of Vermont and Chief Patrol Agent Robert N. Garcia of the Swanton Sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) made the announcement.
Agents from the Swanton Sector Intelligence Unit assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol Newport Station and the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Derby Line Office led U.S. investigative efforts, with assistance from HSI’s Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C. and CBP’s National Targeting Center International Interdiction Task Force.
Trial Attorneys Jake Drucker and Emily Cohen of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section, Trial Attorney Chelsea Schinnour of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Chet Kirkham and Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia Cowles for the District of Vermont are prosecuting the case.
The investigation and charges are supported and prosecuted by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), the Department’s lead effort in combating high-impact human smuggling and trafficking committed by cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). A highly successful partnership between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), JTFA investigates and prosecutes human smuggling and trafficking and related immigration crimes that impact public safety and border security. JTFA’s mission is to target the leaders and organizers of Cartels and TCOs involved in human smuggling and trafficking throughout the Americas. The Attorney General has elevated and expanded JTFA to target the most prolific and dangerous human smuggling and trafficking groups operating not only in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, but also in Canada, the Caribbean and the maritime border, and elsewhere. Led by the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and supported by the Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section, the Office of International Affairs, and the Office of Enforcement Operations, among others, JTFA has dedicated Assistant United States Attorney-detailees from the Southern District of California; District of Arizona; District of New Mexico; Western and Southern Districts of Texas; Southern District of Florida; Northern District of New York; and District of Vermont. JTFA also partners with other USAOs throughout the country and supports high-priority cases in any district. All JTFA cases rely on substantial law enforcement resources from DHS, including ICE/ HSI and CBP/BP and OFO, as well as FBI and other law enforcement agencies. To date, JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 435 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and/or trafficking; more than 385 U.S. convictions; more than 330 significant jail sentences imposed, and forfeitures of substantial assets.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood .
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.