A Mexican citizen who helped smuggle people into the United States using cross-border tunnels and storm drains in El Paso has been sentenced to more than three years in prison. 

U.S. District Judge Leon Schydlower sentenced Ricardo Guadalupe Dominguez, 54, of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, last week in El Paso, Justin Simmons, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said in a statement. 

Federal court documents state that Dominguez, also known as “Mago” or “Magus,” was arrested Aug. 19, 2025, as he attempted to cross into the United States from Mexico through the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry in El Paso. Dominguez had legal residency status in the U.S., officials said. 

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations said Dominguez and others involved in the conspiracy used a subterranean passage that connected to storm drain tunnels to bring undocumented immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico. He was accused of facilitating the smuggling events “by providing vehicles and tools used to tamper and cause damage to the existing storm drains,” Simmons said. 

A federal complaint states that U.S. Border Patrol agents were conducting inspections at known entry points of the Modesto storm drain tunnel when they realized it had been tampered with and a lock to one of the access points on the U.S. side was missing. The storm drain tunnel is about 1.5 miles from the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry, one of six in El Paso. 

Once inside, agents found several construction tools and damage to the structure.

Authorities discovered a man-made cross-border tunnel on Jan. 10, 2025, and determined Dominguez was involved in its construction. 

He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bring aliens into the country. 

Dominguez is the latest to be sentenced in the conspiracy. Documents state that co-defendant Oscar Ivan Carrillo was sentenced in January to more than two years in prison for conspiracy to use a border tunnel. 

Investigating agents determined that Carrillo and others guided the migrants through the tunnels and into the United States. Once at the exit to the tunnel, a modified box truck with a trap door was driven over a manhole cover. The trap door was then opened, which allowed the migrants to climb up out of the tunnel and into the box truck without being seen. 

U.S. Attorney Mathew Engelbaum prosecuted the case in El Paso.