A Houston man who was deployed to the border as part of Texas’ Operation Lone Star was convicted of smuggling undocumented immigrants into the country earlier this week.
Mario Sandoval, 27, was found guilty of conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens after a one-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in a news release Thursday.
Sandoval was deployed to the border with the Texas National Guard under Gov. Greg Abbott’s years-long, multi-billion border security effort. After his deployment ended, he stayed in the Rio Grande Valley and joined in the smuggling operation in July 2024, according to the ICE statement…