EL PASO, Texas — A Mexican smuggler who left 14 immigrants to die in the broiling heat of the Arizona desert has been sentenced to 16 years in prison, U.S. officials said.
Jesus Lopez Ramos, of Guadalajara, led a group of up to 30 illegal immigrants across the treacherous U.S.-Mexico border last May after collecting fees of more than $1,000 each.
He apologized to the victims' families for causing the deaths before he was sentenced on Friday by U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton in Phoenix, Ariz., according to a news release by federal prosecutors.
Local papers said he was charged on 25 counts of smuggling immigrants.
"My intention was just to help people get across (the border) so they could have better lives," Lopez, 21, was quoted as saying in the Arizona Republic. "I never anticipated this horror. It was an accident."
Lopez was an experienced smuggler who began what was to have been a two-day trek across the border through the Arizona desert on May 19.
Lopez, two other smugglers and the immigrants walked through the desert at night to avoid the deadly heat of the daylight hours and decrease the risk of detection by Border Patrol agents.
But by the second day, the group was hopelessly lost and eventually ran out of water.
One of the smugglers and three immigrants gave up and returned to Mexico, but Lopez and another smuggler left the immigrants to search for water. But Lopez's companion died from dehydration and he became too sick to continue.
Border Patrol agents found 11 of the immigrants dehydrated and near death in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, where temperatures soar to as much as 115 degrees during the spring. Another 14 immigrants, who went off in another direction, died of dehydration.