A Juárez man claimed he made a “bad decision” when he tried to help his mother get cancer treatment by aiding human smugglers in digging cross-border tunnels connected to El Paso storm drains.
U.S. District Judge Leon Schydlower sentenced Ricardo Guadalupe Dominguez, 54, to three years and six months in federal prison on one count of conspiracy to bring in aliens, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Justin R. Simmons announced in a news release.
Dominguez, who went by the nicknames “Mago” and “Magus,” was part of a human smuggling organization that was building tunnels in Juárez connecting to the El Paso storm drain system to bring the migrants into the U.S illegally. The migrants would enter a modified box truck through a trap door at the bottom to allow the migrants to enter from the storm drain into the truck without being noticed.
“I realize that it was a bad decision,” Dominguez told Schydlower during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, May 12. “I did it because of the circumstances that I found myself in. My mom has cancer and I wanted to help her with her treatment. I just hope that I can finish and be done with this case so that I can still see her alive. I truly regret this decision in breaking the law and I apologize.”
Felix Valenzuela, Dominguez’s attorney, asked for a lenient sentence for his client because the crime did not involve violence, weapons, assaults or hostage taking.
“No one ever alleged that Mr. Dominguez carried a firearm or threatened anybody,” Valenzuela said during the hearing. “Mr. Dominguez is 54 years old with absolutely zero criminal history, which shows that he’s not someone with a lifelong pattern of violence or sophisticated organized criminal convictions.”
U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecutor Mathew Engelbaum argued for a strict punishment because Dominguez played an ongoing role in the human smuggling scheme.
Schydlower asked if Dominguez’s arrest helped law enforcement “shut down this border tunnel scheme.”
“As to this one judge (yes), but we candidly hear rumors all the time about more tunnels,” Engelbaum said.
The sentencing hearing was held at the Albert Armendariz Sr. Federal Courthouse in Downtown El Paso. Dominguez also was sentenced to three years of supervised release after he serves his prison term, federal court records show.
Dominguez pleaded guilty to the charge on Dec. 17 as part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Counts of conspiracy to transport aliens, conspiracy to construct a border tunnel and conspiracy to use a border tunnel against Dominguez were dismissed as part of the deal, court records show.
Timeline of migrant smuggling investigation
U.S. Border Patrol agents and Homeland Security Investigations special agents were conducting an investigation into tunnels used to smuggle migrants into the U.S., a complaint affidavit states.
Aug. 7, 2024: Agents inspected a known migrant entry points when they found a storm drain in El Paso had been tampered with, including the lock to the drain being missing, the affidavit states. The storm drain was about 1.5 miles east of the Bridge of the Americas port of entry.
Agents found several construction tools and damage to the storm drain. They arrested a man, whose name is not in court documents, found near the storm drain. The man told agents that another man named “Magus” offered him and other men a job breaking through the concrete of a storm drain and building an adjoining tunnel, the affidavit states.
He added that Magus provided the tools and drove them to the storm drain entrance.
Dec. 16, 2024: Agents arrested another man, whose name is not included in the affidavit, who was suspected of running a stash house for migrants smuggled through the storm drain.
The suspect told agents the smugglers would use modified box trucks that had a door on the cargo-area floor to allow migrants to enter the truck directly from the storm drains’ manhole covers.
He said another smuggler told him to hand over control of all of the box trucks and other vehicles to a man named “Mago.” He provided the location of a box truck and van in El Paso to the agents.
An investigation into the vehicles showed Dominguez had driven the van across the Paso Del Norte port of entry on Oct. 23, 2024. It also revealed Dominguez went by the names “Mago” and “Magus.”
The man also told agents of another underground man-made tunnel used to smuggle migrants. The tunnel was found by agents on Jan. 10, 2025.
Feb. 25, 2025: Dominguez attempted to cross the Paso Del Norte port of entry into the U.S.
Agents searched Dominguez’s vehicle and found a drone and a cellphone. Videos recovered from the drone showed the area around the border fence in the El Paso area. The video also showed one of the smugglers.
The cell phone had voice-recorded messages of Dominguez and other smugglers talking about the man-made tunnels, the affidavit states.
Dominguez said in one message, “Lo que no saben (expletive), es que les vamos a aser orto,” which translates to “what the (expletive) don’t know is that we are going to build another one,” the affidavit states.
Court documents do not state why Dominguez was released from custody.
July 24, 2025: A concerned citizen notified Border Patrol agents that five people had exited a storm drain at the intersection of San Antonio Avenue and Oregon Street in Downtown El Paso, the affidavit states.
Agents entered the storm drain and found no migrants. They found a cell phone in the storm drain. The cell phone had a number saved as “Magus.” Messages found on the cell phone discussed “the best routes to take and directions of travel for the purpose of smuggling” migrants, the affidavit states.
Agents have disrupted numerous smuggling attempts since they found the Downtown storm drain, the affidavit states.
Aug. 19, 2025: Dominguez again attempted to cross into the U.S. at the Paso Del Norte port of entry. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers searched Dominguez’s phone.
The officers found more messages discussing the border, including smugglers driving up and down the border on the Juárez side. The smugglers were tracking the movement of Border Patrol agents along the border. There were also videos showing the agents’ locations. The videos were sent to Dominguez, the affidavit states.
Another video found was a “proof of life” video that showed two migrants stating their names and where they are from. Proof of life videos are commonly used by smugglers to prove the migrants have arrived at the locations they were smuggled to inside the U.S., the affidavit states.
Dominguez was arrested on suspicion of human smuggling.
Co-defendant sentenced to prison in smuggling scheme
Oscar Ivan Carrillo also was arrested in the human smuggling scheme. Schydlower sentenced Carrillo on Jan. 19 to two years and nine months in federal prison on one count of conspiracy to use a border tunnel.
Carrillo also was sentenced to three years of supervised release after he serves his prison term.
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: ‘Bad decision’ leads Juárez man to prison in human smuggling case
Reporting by Aaron Martinez, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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