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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Former ICE contractor sentenced for smuggling 39 people on charter bus

2025-06-06

[MyRGV] A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract employee was sentenced to nearly two years in prison Wednesday for using a charter bus to transport 39 people in the country illegally.

Nancy Fernandez Luna, born in 1989, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport people illegally in the country on Dec. 6.

She was arrested on Oct. 4 after being found with the people at the Falfurrias checkpoint

…a city and the county seat of Brooks County, Texas, founded by rancher Edward Cunningham Lasater in 1904. It is known for its butter industry, oil and gas reserves, and a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint that attracts migrants and migrant deaths...

in an All Valley Charters Prevost bus.

At the checkpoint, Fernandez told Border Patrol agents that she was a government contract employee for MVM, a government contract transport company, according to a criminal complaint.

During the inspection, she told agents she works with ICE and escorts people without documentation north. She provided her ICE personal identification verification contracting card as proof of her authority, the complaint said.
During a secondary inspection, Fernandez claimed she was transporting juveniles who were all COVID positive. As the agents contacted the Central Processing Center regarding the validity of the bus, the bus departed.

"Agents conducted a traffic stop on the bus and instructed it to return to secondary inspection," the complaint stated.

Agents requested the manifest and found inconsistencies such as not all of its passengers being juveniles. The Central Processing Center, meanwhile, advised Border Patrol they had no transport buses currently operating.

The driver of the bus, Juan Torres Ayala, born in 1982, told investigators that he knew all 39 people were in the country illegally and said he was going to be paid $1,800 for the trip. Torres also said he picked up the bus rental and knew Fernandez’s manifest was fraudulent.

He previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 16 months in prison. Fernandez was sentenced to a total of 21 months and was ordered to self-surrender to the U.S. Marshals in McAllen on July 11 at 2 p.m., court records show.

Posted by:Joe of the Jungle

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