A 19-year-old Tucson resident, Xochil Elizabeth Hernandez, was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 36 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to smuggle aliens and possession of ammunition by a convicted felon.
Her prison sentence is to be followed by 36 months of supervised release.
At the time of the offense, Hernandez was serving a term of supervised release for a prior alien smuggling conviction. Her supervised release in the prior case was revoked, and she was sentenced to serve six months in addition to the 36 months for the new charge.
On November 6, 2021, an Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer pulled over Hernandez’s vehicle for a traffic infraction near Amado, Arizona. The DPS officer, assisted by nearby Border Patrol agents, discovered the front seat passenger was an undocumented noncitizen. The DPS officer and agents discovered two more undocumented noncitizens hidden in the trunk of the vehicle. They also discovered a bag of .45 caliber ammunition in Hernandez’s purse and a pellet gun designed to look like a Glock handgun in the glove compartment.