{"id":258740,"date":"2026-04-21T01:23:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/258740\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T01:23:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:23:46","slug":"u-s-citizen-arrested-for-migrant-smuggling-in-el-paso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/258740\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. citizen arrested for migrant smuggling in El Paso"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">EL PASO, Texas (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:KTSM;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;KTSM&quot;}\" class=\"link \">KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons announced 261 new immigration and immigration-related cases have been filed by federal prosecutors in the Western District of Texas from April 3 to April 9.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Among those cases, a U.S citizen was arrested and charged with alien smuggling in El Paso on April 6.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">U.S. Border Patrol took Samuel Castro into custody near the bridge of the Americas Port of Entry after agents observed a vehicle parked nearby and questioned its two occupants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Castro, who was the driver of the vehicle, allegedly told agents that he intended to pick up and transport two illegal aliens and was expected to be paid $500 for each, according to the District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He reportedly claimed to have been involved in migrant smuggling since 2023, operating as a coordinator and a driver.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In October 2024, he was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and evading arrest with a vehicle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">These cases were referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including ICE, U.S.<br \/>Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service<br \/>(USMS), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), with additional<br \/>assistance from state and local law enforcement partners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIndictments and criminal complaints are merely allegations, and all defendants are presumed<br \/>innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,\u201d according to the District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.;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;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons announced 261 new immigration and immigration-related cases have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[97050,1818,21472,138,140,139,48813,97049,27,674,14594],"class_list":["post-258740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-alien-smuggling","tag-border-patrol","tag-drug-enforcement-administration","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-federal-prosecutors","tag-samuel-castro","tag-texas","tag-u-s-marshals-service","tag-western-district-of-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258740","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=258740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}