US Sentences One of Mexico’s Most Prolific Human Traffickers to 11 Years

Mexicali, Baja California — A US court has sentenced Ofelia Hernández Salas, a 64-year-old Mexican woman described as one of the world’s most prolific human traffickers, to 11 years in prison for operating a network that smuggled thousands of migrants across the border with the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Hernández Salas, also known as Doña Lupe and La Güera, was arrested in Mexicali in March 2023 during a joint operation by Mexican and US security forces. Her main accomplice, Raúl Saucedo Huipio, was also captured at a home in the Zacatecas neighborhood. The arrest ended a lengthy manhunt led by the Department of Homeland Security, which had focused on hotels used to house migrants and members of her criminal network.

In her police mugshot, Hernández Salas appears as an unassuming grandmother in a checked blouse and beige sweater. But US authorities described her as a dangerous fugitive with a long criminal record, alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and corrupt local officials, and a history of ordering her operatives to rob migrants at gunpoint and knifepoint as they guided them through the desert.

“Large-scale transnational human smuggling directly threatens our national security,” said A. Tysen Duva, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, in a statement on the sentence. “Illegal border crossings are already incredibly dangerous. This defendant only increased the potential for deadly harm by adding robbery to her criminal acts.”

Hernández Salas charged migrants between $10,000 and $70,000 per person. Her clients came from countries as far as Bangladesh, Yemen, Pakistan, India, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Russia, and Egypt, making her operation global. The US Treasury noted in 2023 that her group facilitated travel for foreigners from countries that posed national security concerns.

Her network is believed to have operated since 2018. The modus operandi involved picking up migrants at a bus station in Mexicali, taking them to safe houses, and then guiding them through the California desert. Coyotes placed ladders for climbing the rusty fence dividing Mexico and the US, or planks to cross canals. In other cases, they passed migrants through holes dug under the border wall.

The criminal case cited complaints from 15 people who hired the group between May 7, 2020, and June 24, 2021. The Justice Department said some crossings turned violent: “While armed with pistols and knives, they robbed many migrants of their money, cell phones, and other belongings.”

The US Treasury imposed sanctions in June 2023 to financially weaken the organization and expose other operators. According to US authorities, the gang distributed bribes to Mexican officials who were not identified in the indictment.

Hernández Salas delegated tasks among at least four accomplices. Some forged documents to facilitate migrants’ transit through Mexico and provided lodging in Chiapas; others coordinated with Central American coyotes for transport, lodging, and illegal crossing into the US. Hernández Salas coordinated the entire operation by phone from Mexicali.