GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - A Mexican citizen has pleaded guilty to smuggling people into the United States through Canada for compensation.
Josue Bermudez-Lopez, 26, pleaded guilty Tuesday to transportation of illegal aliens and being in the country illegally. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls scheduled sentencing for Feb. 13. Bermudez-Lopez faces up to 10 years in prison.
Bermudez-Lopez was one of four people charged with smuggling after 19 Mexican citizens were arrested during a Nov. 17 traffic stop near Cut Bank. The other three pleaded not guilty Tuesday.
Court records say officers received information about suspicious rental activity at a Cut Bank hotel by several Mexican citizens over the previous six months. Border Patrol agents suspected Mexican citizens were coming into the country illegally from Canada.
Four of the people who were arrested told Border Patrol agents they paid from $4,000 to $4,750 to be smuggled into the U.S., court records said.
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