FILE – In this Dec. 12, 2018 file photo, Honduran migrants, one carrying a child, who plan to turn themselves over to U.S. border patrol agents, walk up the embankment after climbing over the U.S. border wall from Playas de Tijuana, Mexico in Tijuana, Mexico. The group crossed to apply for asylum. A federal judge on Friday, May 17, 2019, in California will consider a challenge to President Donald Trump’s plan to tap billions of dollars from the Defense and Treasury departments to build his prized border wall with Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — A Houston-area man has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison for trying to smuggle immigrants in furniture after three people were found in a plastic-wrapped dresser that was nailed shut.
Federal prosecutors say 23-year-old Yabar Ayan Portes-Arevalo of Katy was sentenced Monday in Corpus Christi to 21 months.
Portes-Arevalo in February was convicted of transporting immigrants living in the country illegally and endangering their lives. He could lose his status as a legal permanent U.S. resident.
Investigators say Portes-Arevalo in December was driving a pickup truck and hauling a plastic-wrapped couch and dresser. He stopped at the Border Patrol checkpoint near Sarita (suh-REE’-tuh).
Authorities say the driver appeared nervous so the load was examined. Agents removed the plastic and found three people hidden inside the couch and three more inside the dresser.
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