A federal jury in Del Rio convicted three co-defendants on Tuesday for their roles in a human smuggling organization that prosecutors say generated more than $5 million and orchestrated the murder of a man whose body was then doused in acid in a failed attempt to destroy the evidence. Israel Ramirez-Perez, Ricardo Rojas Vazquez, and David Christopher Ewell were found guilty on multiple federal charges tied to the Alejandro Santoyo-Guzman alien smuggling organization, including counts of transporting illegal aliens resulting in death and placing lives in jeopardy.
The verdict, announced Tuesday, came from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, which posted the news on social media through its U.S. Attorney WDTX
account, crediting the Homeland Security Task Force and HSI San Antonio for the prosecution. According to the
U.S. Department of Justice
, trial evidence showed the organization's illicit proceeds topped $5 million over the course of the conspiracy.
A Killing Hidden In Acid
The most disturbing evidence at trial centered on the death of Edgar Ponce Campos. Testimony revealed that Rojas Vazquez ordered Ponce's murder, after which Ramirez-Perez, who was responsible for a kidnapping and an attempted murder, shot Ponce multiple times and then unsuccessfully tried to dissolve his body in acid, the Department of Justice reported.
Directing The Operation From Behind Bars
Perhaps the most striking detail to emerge from the trial is that Ewell kept helping manage the smuggling organization even while serving a sentence inside the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, according to evidence presented at trial. He operated in tandem with his partner, Marcelina Truxillo-Logan, who communicated with the organization's financial managers, the Department of Justice reported — a detail that illustrates how these networks can maintain operational control across state and institutional lines.
The prosecution was carried out under the Homeland Security Task Force, a whole-of-government partnership.
Immigration Prosecutions In West Texas
The case is an immigration-related prosecution in the Western District of Texas.
Hoodline has previously reported on the harsh environmental dangers migrants face along smuggling routes through the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector, which logs over 900 search-and-rescue operations per fiscal year, with heat exposure inside enclosed vehicles, containers, and train cars posing the primary threat. Texas has also moved to toughen its own penalties: under Senate Bill 4, state convictions for human smuggling under Texas Penal Code § 20.05 carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, adding a parallel layer of punishment alongside federal charges like those used against Ramirez-Perez, Rojas Vazquez, and Ewell.
Sentencing dates for the three men have not yet been announced, and it remains unclear whether additional co-conspirators tied to the Santoyo-Guzman organization remain at large. The convictions mark the latest in a string of Del Rio-area smuggling prosecutions this year, adding to a case list that has grown steadily as federal and state authorities press forward with coordinated enforcement along the border.
