Feds Unravel Mexican’s Scheme To Smuggle Middle Easterners Into U.S.

 A Mexican national pleaded guilty to smuggling thousands of illegal immigrants into the United States, including from heavily Islamic countries with links to terrorism. 

Efrain Zuniga-Garcia admitted Monday in federal court to participating in a “vast” scheme to sneak up to 3,000 foreign nationals into America, including from countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Yemen, the Justice Department said. The 38-year-old Zuniga-Garcia was involved in the scheme from November 2020 until September 2023, when he was first charged.  

The smuggling network operated stash houses in Monterrey, Mexico, and Piedras Negras, Mexico, and brought in between 2,500 and 3,000 illegal immigrants. The network also smuggled in foreign nationals from India, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Ecuador.

The scheme operated at the same time that Border Patrol agents encountered a shocking spike in individuals on the terror watchlist along the porous border that former President Joe Biden oversaw.

Zuniga-Garcia ran the Monterrey stash house where he coordinated the transportation of the illegals by turning them over to “coyotes” who would bring them across the Rio Grande and into the United States, according to the Justice Department. 

He was charged in September 2023 with conspiracy to bring an alien into the United States and three counts of bringing an alien into the United States for financial benefit. Zuniga-Garcia pled guilty to both counts and faces a mandatory minimum of three years in prison upon sentencing. 

Multiple of Zuniga-Garcia’s co-defendants have already been sentenced to prison, including Enil Edil Mejia-Zuniga and Monica Hernandez-Palma. Mejia-Zuniga, an illegal from Honduras who lived in San Antonio, Texas, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2025 after being convicted of directing the operation. 

“In an effort to satisfy his greed, Mejia-Zuniga facilitated the illegal movement of thousands of Middle Easterners into the United States,” said U.S. Attorney Justin Simmons for the Western District of Texas at the time. “His actions put our national security at risk.”

Lawmakers have warned that Americans could still be facing security challenges after the flood of illegal immigrants during the Biden presidency. The House Homeland Security Committee found that from the start of fiscal year 2021 to the end of Biden’s presidency, Border Patrol agents encountered around 400 individuals on the terror watchlist at the border. From 2017 to 2020, only 14 individuals on the terror watchlist were apprehended at the border, according to the committee. During that same time, at least two million illegals who were known “gotaways” entered the country.