Mexican college student sentenced to 5 years in U.S. federal prison for smuggling nearly $900,000

A U.S. federal judge sentenced 22-year-old Mexican national Juan Pablo Hoyos Avila, who was a student at Incarnate Word Academy in San Antonio, Texas, to five years in federal prison for attempting to smuggle $879,695 in cash from the U.S. to Mexico. The judge ordered to forfeiture his assets and placed him under supervised released for three years after completes his prison term.

Court documents show that on July 16, 2018, Hoyos Avila and Mexican national Rafael Gabriel Martinez Leal were arrested while attempting to fly from the San Antonio International Airport to Mexico with US$879,695 that were undeclared. The money was packaged inside a suitcase and in a cardboard package. Hoyos Avila told investigators that he was paid 3.5 percent of the U.S. currency he smuggled, and that he would smuggle about US$ 1 million per week (that is about US$35,000 per week).