Two men tied to a deadly migrant smuggling run that ended on a South Texas highway are headed to federal prison for decades, after a Del Rio judge handed down sentences totaling more than 29 years this week. The defendants, 29-year-old Jerry Lee Anderson of Spring and 25-year-old Orlin Wilfredo Padilla‑Murillo, a Honduran national, received separate long terms following a multi‑agency probe into a failed October 2022 operation that left two migrants dead and two others badly hurt. Prosecutors say the case stretched across several South Texas jurisdictions and into the Houston area, where money and driver recruitment were allegedly coordinated.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas announced that Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses sentenced Anderson to 168 months in prison and Padilla‑Murillo to 188 months. Another co‑defendant, Michael Desmond Kennedy, had already been given 87 months. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Texas, the October 2022 crash killed a load driver and two illegal aliens and left two additional migrants seriously injured.
How investigators say the ring worked
Federal agents with ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Del Rio followed a trail of WhatsApp chats and CashApp payments that they say tied Padilla‑Murillo and Anderson to multiple failed smuggling runs and to the recruitment of load drivers. On social media, the office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Padilla‑Murillo admitted that he recruited drivers and was paid about $3,500 per person to move migrants from Eagle Pass toward the Houston area. Phone evidence linked the defendants to stops where migrants were found hidden in trailers and recreational vehicles…