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

NEW ORLEANS — Jairo Josue Martinez-Ramos, a Honduran national extradited to the United States, received a 49-month prison sentence on May 14, 2026, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana for conspiring to smuggle 23 illegal aliens and multiple kilograms of cocaine across the southern border.

The scope of the conspiracy included the movement of nearly two dozen migrants and cocaine loads into the United States, according to the Department of Justice. Martinez-Ramos was held accountable for his specific operational role inside a larger network that coordinated both human and drug flows.

The sentencing completes the judicial phase for Martinez-Ramos after his extradition from Honduras. Prior to sentencing he faced charges under federal statutes governing conspiracy to smuggle aliens and import controlled substances. The 49-month term replaces any provisional detention status and begins immediately.

Downstream, the Bureau of Prisons must now designate a facility and calculate release date accounting for good-time credit, projected no earlier than late 2029. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will initiate removal proceedings upon completion of the criminal sentence because Martinez-Ramos is not a U.S. citizen.

The case also supplies evidentiary material that federal prosecutors can use to pursue remaining unindicted members of the same smuggling network still operating in Honduras or Mexico. Homeland Security investigators gain a closed case file that can be referenced in future extradition requests or wiretap affidavits targeting parallel organizations.

This sentencing follows a series of similar extraditions and convictions of Central American organizers involved in mixed migrant-narcotics ventures. The Justice Department has pursued these hybrid conspiracies through the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana, which sits along a documented transit corridor for both people and drugs originating from the isthmus.