More than a year and a half after the discovery of an underground tunnel beneath the U.S.-Mexico border, a key figure in the smuggling network has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bring migrants into the United States.
Prosecutors said Mexican smuggler Luis Carlos Davalos-Lopez helped run an illicit operation that charged migrants as much as $30,000 to cross into the U.S. The tunnel ran from Ciudad Juárez in Mexico and connected to the public storm drain system in El Paso, Texas. It was allegedly built by the notorious Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, or CJNG, and ran for roughly 1,000 feet on the Mexican side of the border, officials said when it was discovered.
Once inside El Paso’s municipal storm drains, smugglers moved migrants underground to exit points, including a modified box truck over a manhole. Migrants were directed to climb directly from the drain into the truck via a trap door.
Justice Department 
Investigators used wiretaps and surveillance to connect the smuggling business to other alleged illicit activities, including drug and weapons trafficking.
Prosecutors said intercepted calls captured Davalos-Lopez discussing the details of the Juarez-to-El Paso tunnel: how migrants moved through it, fees of tens of thousands of dollars and logistics.
The conspiracy charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, closes the loop on an operation uncovered in January 2025 in a case that has served as an early test of the Trump administration’s effort to treat cartel-linked smuggling as counterterrorism.
“The defendants in this case were key figures in a criminal enterprise that has had a heavy, detrimental impact on both sides of the border, smuggling drugs and illegal aliens into the U.S. while also trafficking firearms into Mexico, firearms which were then used to further facilitate the movement of drugs and illegal aliens into this country,” said U.S. Attorney Justin Simmons for the Western District of Texas in a statement. “The convictions secured in this case are just another nail in the coffin for these transnational criminal organizations and foreign terrorist organizations.”
While Davalos-Lopez did not plead guilty to terrorism, his associate Maria Del Rosario Navarro-Sanchez did just last month, admitting to conspiracy to provide material support to CJNG. Navarro-Sanchez also faced drug, firearms-trafficking and alien-smuggling charges.
Still, the case underscores a shift in how the United States has begun prosecuting cartels, framing drug, gun and human smuggling crimes as terrorism crimes. The Trump administration has designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, empowering prosecutors to pursue harsher charges for conduct that was previously considered organized crime.
