Texas Man Gets 30 Months for Running Violent Monopoly Over Border-Region Transmigrante Industry

Roberto Garcia Villarreal, 59, was also ordered to pay a $50,000 criminal fine. The court remanded him into custody immediately following sentencing. Villarreal pleaded guilty to three counts: conspiracy to illegally fix prices and allocate the market for transmigrante forwarding agency services; conspiracy to monopolize that same market; and conspiracy to interfere with commerce by extortion.

The case centers on the transmigrante forwarding agency industry at the Los Indios Bridge crossing in Texas, near Harlingen and Brownsville. Transmigrantes arrange for and transport used vehicles and other goods from the United States through Mexico for resale in Central America, and forwarding agencies help those clients complete the customs paperwork required to export vehicles into Mexico. Villarreal and his co-defendants created a centralized entity called the Pool to collect and divide revenues among co-conspirators, limit outside competition, and raise prices. Forwarding agencies outside the conspiracy were forced to join and pay into the Pool, and were also required to pay additional extortion fees — including a fee known as a piso for every transaction processed in the industry.

Pool members enforced the arrangement by monitoring whether forwarding agencies were charging the agreed-upon prices and making required payments. The DOJ described the conspiracy as long-running and violent.

Eight others have been convicted in the case, seven of whom have already been sentenced. The conspiracy's leader, Carlos Martinez, 39, of McAllen, received an 11-year prison term. Three additional defendants — Rigoberto Brown, Miguel Hipolito Caballero Aupart, and Diego Ceballos-Soto — were charged in a superseding indictment and remain fugitives.

The case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI. Prosecutors from the Antitrust Division, the Criminal Division's Violent Crime and Racketeering Section, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas handled the prosecution.