South Texas Couple Led Double Lives as Truckers By Day, Smugglers by Night

The money laundering was just the tip of the iceberg.

A young couple living in Mission, Texas lived an extravagant and flashy lifestyle. Under the guise of a wildly trucking business, Luis Enrique Moctezuma-Acosta, 37, and Scarlett Fuentes-Gavarrette, 34 were unafraid to flaunt their wealth.

The two could be seen sporting glitzy jewelry, driving luxury cars, investing in further ventures and designer clothing. But such a bold display of wealth tends to draw unwanted attention...like that of the Feds.

Beyond Money Laundering

In November 2019, Federal agents began their investigation of what they presumed would be a simple money laundering operation. But as they investigated, they began to see signs of something much, much larger at play....and so they followed the breadcrumbs.

Piece by piece, they uncovered a sprawling, complex human smuggling operation with countless moving parts.

The LEMA smuggling operation used an extensive network of commercial airplanes, tractor-trailers, and various other methods to bring 2,459 undocumented migrants into the U.S.

They heavily focused on Brazilian nationals and the massive enterprise stretched from Honduras to as far north as Boston, Massachusetts.

On March 9, 2023 multiple federal search warrant were executed at the properties of the couple. A reported $2.69 million in assets and $1.5 million in cash were seized.

Not Benevolent

Fuentes-Gavarrette and Moctezuma-Acosta were not benevolent smugglers looking to help migrants find a better life in the land of opportunity.

At their hearings, recordings were played for the court to hear "undocumented aliens held against their will and begging their families to pay smugglers for their release."

In March, the couple pled guilty to several federal charges, including conspiracy to transport illegal aliens. At their sentencing on July 30, they were both ordered to serve 240 months, or 20 years in federal custody.

Several of their family members also pled guilty to the same money laundering charges.

After their time is served, they will be removed from the States, due to their non-citizen status.

After handing down the sentence, the court noted that it was one of the largest alien smuggling takedowns seen in the Southern District of Texas recently.