Virginia man sentenced to nine years in prison for smuggling immigrants through McLennan County
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A Virginia man who was paid to drive four immigrants to different locations across the South was sentenced to nine years in prison Thursday.
Natividad de Jesus Diaz-Henriquez, 49, pleaded guilty to four counts of smuggling of persons in a plea bargain with the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office. Judge Thomas West of Waco’s 19th State District Court accepted the plea agreement and sentenced Diaz-Henriquez to four concurrent nine-year prison terms.
Diaz-Henriquez, who court records show is a native of El Salvador, also is being held on an immigration detainer, meaning he likely will face deportation after he serves his prison term.
According to an arrest affidavit, Diaz-Henriquez was driving a 2017 Nissan Altima northbound on Interstate 35 in April 2023 when an officer pulled him over for failing to signal a turn at least 100 feet before an intersection.
The officer noticed the GPS in his car indicated he had 12 more hours to go until his destination. Diaz-Henriquez told the officer he was coming from Irving, which the officer said puzzled him because he was heading north. He told the officer he was going to his sister’s home in Richmond, Va.
“Now I was more confused as to why he was traveling (northbound) through Waco,” the officer wrote in the affidavit.
Diaz-Henriquez said he stopped in Austin to pick up some friends. The officer asked to look at his GPS destination and it showed to be Athens, Ala., the affidavit states. He said the four passengers in his car wanted to go there, so that’s where he was taking them.
The officer asked if he knew any of the passengers in his car, and he said he only knew the man in the back seat, Jose Hernandez. The officer asked to see the man’s identification and he gave him a Mexico ID showing the name Jorge Jimenez, according to the affidavit.
Jimenez told the officer he didn’t know the driver and said he got picked up at a gas station in San Antonio. A woman in the car had a Honduran passport and said her mother-in-law was going to pay the driver when they got to where they were going.
Another back seat passenger told the officer she paid Diaz-Henriquez $2,000 to take her to Atlanta, Ga., while Diaz-Henriquez told immigration officials at the McLennan County Jail that a woman paid him $1,000 to take the four to Alabama, according to arrest records.
The passengers in the car were detained by immigration officials.
Copyright 2024 KWTX. All rights reserved.
