{"id":240384,"date":"2026-04-08T13:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/240384\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T13:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:37:13","slug":"corpus-christi-man-sentenced-to-3-years-in-federal-prison-after-smuggling-two-people-on-boat-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/240384\/","title":{"rendered":"Corpus Christi man sentenced to 3 years in federal prison after smuggling two people on boat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A 47-year-old Corpus Christi man has been sentenced to federal prison for trying to smuggle two people through the Intracoastal Waterway, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdtx\/pr\/local-man-sentenced-smuggling-illegal-aliens-disguised-fishing-trip\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Texas;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Texas&quot;}\" class=\"link \">U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials say Christopher Henson used his boat to avoid Border Patrol checkpoints by traveling along coastal waters. Investigators said he made the trips look like fishing outings, going south near Port Mansfield to pick up people, then traveling north to drop them off past checkpoint areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Henson pleaded guilty on September 29, 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The investigation began on March 30, 2025, when law enforcement watched Henson as he prepared to dock his boat at a known coastal drop-off location.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When officers moved in, Henson jumped into the water and tried to get away. He was quickly arrested. Officers also said they found a gun in his jacket.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A search of the boat found two people who had traveled with him from Port Mansfield.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">U.S. District Judge David S. Morales sentenced Henson to three years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Prosecutors said the judge also considered his past smuggling activity and previous illegal gun possession.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials said Henson remains in custody and will be transferred to a federal prison facility later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 47-year-old Corpus Christi man has been sentenced to federal prison for trying to smuggle two people through&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[92199,155,157,156,12513,92201,92200,31370],"class_list":{"0":"post-240384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-christopher-henson","9":"tag-corpus-christi","10":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","11":"tag-corpus-christi-news","12":"tag-federal-prison","13":"tag-intracoastal-waterway","14":"tag-port-mansfield","15":"tag-southern-district-of-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}