Honduran National Sentenced to 49 Months for Smuggling 23 Migrants and Cocaine into US

A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas sentenced extradited Honduran national Jairo Josue Martinez-Ramos to 49 months in prison on May 14, 2026, for his role in an international human and drug smuggling conspiracy.

The sentence covers Martinez-Ramos's admitted participation in a scheme that brought 23 illegal aliens and multiple kilograms of cocaine across the southwest border. Per the Justice Department release, the operation combined migrant transportation with cocaine distribution inside the United States.

Martinez-Ramos pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges that carry mandatory minimum sentences and forfeiture provisions.

The scope of the underlying conduct included 23 undocumented migrants moved into the country and at least several kilograms of cocaine. The Justice Department tied the case to broader interdiction efforts along the southern border that target overlapping human and narcotics networks. Martinez-Ramos was extradited from Honduras to face charges in Texas federal court.

The sentencing shifts the operational status from pretrial detention and extradition proceedings to Bureau of Prisons custody followed by three years of supervised release. Forfeiture of any proceeds or property linked to the smuggling ring must now be executed under standard Department of Justice timelines.

Federal prosecutors and Homeland Security Investigations agents must next file all final accounting documents with the district court within the next 90 days.

Downstream, the conviction activates formal removal proceedings once Martinez-Ramos completes his prison term. It also supplies precedent and investigative leads for pending cases against other members of the same network still at large. Immigration and Customs Enforcement must now update its regional smuggling-threat assessments to reflect the operational methods confirmed in the guilty plea.

The case further requires the State Department and Honduran authorities to maintain extradition cooperation protocols that enabled the transfer.

This sentencing forms part of the Justice Department's ongoing effort to prosecute combined human-smuggling and drug-trafficking organizations. The department has used the same conspiracy statutes in multiple southwest-border cases since 2023, frequently securing extraditions from Central American countries.

The original indictment in Martinez-Ramos's case was returned in the Southern District of Texas under 21 U.S.C. § 963 and 8 U.S.C. § 1324.