Woman charged for transporting and harboring more than 100 undocumented immigrants

TUCSON, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - A woman from Oaxaca Mexico, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for transporting and sheltering over 100 undocumented immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins announced the ruling for Amalia Gonzalez-Lara Tuesday.

She will also have to serve three years of supervised probation.

The 43-year-old pleaded guilty on Nov. 18, 2021, to one count of conspiring to transport and harbor more than 100 undocumented immigrants for personal gain.

She operated, managed and coordinated smuggling procedures for a hiding place in Avondale, Ariz. for those crossing.

On Jan. 12, 2021, law enforcement agents discovered 20 undocumented immigrants at the hiding house who were all citizens of either Mexico or Guatemala.

The house was used for hiding considerable numbers of non-U.S. citizens who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Ariz. then taken to Phoenix.

Sergio Vazquez-Flores, 46, was a co-conspirator in this operation who oversaw the hiding house for Gonzalez-Lara.

Vazquez-Flores will be sentenced on March 15, 2022.

Homeland Security Investigations- Nogales Office, assisted by United States Border Patrol, executed the investigation in this case.

The United States Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, Tucson, managed the prosecution.