A Mexican national was sentenced in federal court in El Paso Wednesday to 144 months in prison, along with an El Paso man who was sentenced to 200 months in prison, for violation of federal law concerning hostage taking.
According to court documents, Carlos Villa-Miranda aka “Negro,” 42 of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and Enrique Quiroz Jr. aka “Kike,” 50 of El Paso were co-conspirators in a human smuggling organization through which they demanded money from the families of the undocumented individuals they were trafficking. Quiroz threatened to kill the trafficking victims if they were to speak to the police and urged the victims to tell their families to pay the ransoms. Villa-Miranda also made threats toward the undocumented individuals, on at least one occasion brandishing a butcher-style knife.
In December 2020, Villa-Miranda was arrested after he fled a secondary inspection at the Las Cruces U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint on Interstate-10, and Quiroz was taken into custody during a search of his apartment.