Raúl Saucedo Huipio, a 51-year-old resident of Mexicali, Baja California, was sentenced to 87 months (more than 7 years) in prison for his role as manager or supervisor in a large-scale human smuggling organization that operated between 2018 and 2022 along the US-Mexico border.
The sentence was handed down on June 15th following his extradition from Mexico and his guilty plea in March 2026 to charges of conspiracy to smuggle an alien into the US and smuggling aliens into the country.
It is worth noting that Saucedo Huipio was linked to Ofelia Hernández Salas, alias “Doña Lupe,” a woman already sentenced and connected to the Sinaloa Cartel.
According to the indictment, Saucedo Huipio and his accomplices facilitated the transport of more than 200 people—though authorities say the actual number is likely much higher—from and through at least 19 countries into the United States.
The migrants came from or transited through Bangladesh, Yemen, Pakistan, Eritrea, India, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Russia, Egypt, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. The organization charged each migrant tens of thousands of dollars for the illegal border crossing.
