A 41-year-old Colombian human smuggler has admitted in federal court to helping load roughly 40 migrants and two boat captains onto a vessel that disappeared at sea in October 2023, and a top DOJ official says the case exposes how smuggling networks profit from human misery at every stage of the journey north.
Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, known by the alias "El Calvo," pleaded guilty in an El Paso, Texas, federal courtroom to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and placing lives in jeopardy. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison. No sentencing date has been set.
The boat left San Andrés Island, Colombia, on October 21, 2023, headed for Nicaragua, the first leg of what was supposed to be an overland trek through Central America and Mexico before an illegal crossing into the United States. It never arrived. No one aboard has been seen or heard from since.
Linero Pinto did not simply point migrants toward a dock. Federal prosecutors say he ran a hands-on operation: advising migrants on how to reach San Andrés Island, personally receiving them when they arrived, arranging their accommodations, and physically transporting them to the smuggling boats.
He also bribed members of the Colombian navy. The payments bought him real-time intelligence on the positions of patrol vessels between San Andrés Island and Nicaragua, allowing smuggling boats to steer around authorities. The corruption extended across borders and institutions, a reminder that these networks do not operate in a vacuum. They buy their way through the gaps.
Linero Pinto was charged in October 2024, arrested in Colombia at the request of the U.S. government in December 2024, and extradited to the United States. He made his first appearance in the El Paso federal court in December 2025 before entering his guilty plea.
An alleged co-conspirator, Hernando Manuel de la Cruz Rivera Orjuela, still faces a pending case.
Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva, who leads the Justice Department's Criminal Division, told Fox News Digital the case was one of the most disturbing his division has handled.
"These 40 individuals and the two boat captains, once they set out from San Andrés Island to Nicaragua, were never heard from again. These individuals are, of course, missing and presumed dead, and it appears that there were no survivors."
Duva made clear that the 42 people aboard never even completed the first segment of a journey that was supposed to carry them thousands of miles north.
"That's the first leg. They didn't even finish the first leg here and get to Nicaragua and then try to come north by land. It's a really long journey, and it's full of really bad things that can happen."
Those "really bad things," Duva explained, go well beyond the physical dangers of open water and jungle crossings. He described how smuggling operations routinely convert into trafficking operations once migrants reach the United States, or sometimes before they arrive.
"You pay money to come to the United States, and then when you get here, the co-conspirators or those involved in the criminal enterprise will say, 'But now you owe more, and you're going to work this off in the sex trade.'"
Duva was blunt about the motive driving these networks. He told Fox News the calculus is straightforward:
"It's all about money. Anybody who's involved with a cartel or transnational smuggling in this regard, it is about money. It's about preying on people's misfortune."
The Linero Pinto prosecution falls under Operation Take Back America and the DOJ-led Joint Task Force Alpha, an initiative targeting cartels and transnational organizations involved in human smuggling and trafficking. The task force operates along the southern border, maritime routes near Florida, and the northern border with Canada.
Its numbers so far: more than 483 domestic and international arrests, over 436 U.S. convictions, and more than 371 significant prison sentences. Duva credited President Trump with putting "tremendous focus" on the initiative and praised the funding provided through the One Big Beautiful Bill, legislation that gave the DOJ Criminal Division resources to hire additional prosecutors and place experienced attorneys in priority sections.
"We're super thankful to President Trump. We're deeply thankful to the White House for that. We're thankful to Congress for that, and we're going to keep doing what we're doing."
Duva said the additional prosecutors are already making a difference.
"We're feeling the effects of that. We're able to put skilled prosecutors in these different sections to attack these administration priorities."
Even with hundreds of arrests and convictions, Duva acknowledged the difficulty of deterring smugglers who see the profits as worth the risk. The networks operate with a sense of invincibility.
"They just think, 'Well, they catch other people, but they're not going to get me.' You really try to combat that one case at a time."
Duva described the DOJ's approach as relentless but incremental, prosecuting case after case until the cost of doing business becomes too high to ignore. He said the task force's reach now extends well beyond the U.S.-Mexico border.
"We are focusing on these cases at any border that we have. Our reach is substantial. We are going to chase these cases no matter where they originate from or where we find them."
He also pushed back against any suggestion that cracking down on smuggling networks should be a partisan issue.
"It shouldn't be partisan. It should be obvious that anybody who's in the White House, anybody who is in Congress, should be lauding these cases and the work that's being done by Criminal Division entities like Joint Task Force Alpha."
What happened to the boat remains unknown. No wreckage and no remains have been publicly reported. Duva said he was not aware of anyone surviving that kind of disappearance over such a long period.
"I don't know that I've ever heard of anybody who survives that one after several months and a year. It's super tragic, and hopefully people realize when they hear about this case just how dangerous it is and how important it is that you target these smuggling groups."
The nationalities of the 40 migrants aboard have not been disclosed. Whether the two captains were part of Linero Pinto's organization or independent operators pressed into service remains unclear from the public record. No Colombian navy personnel have been publicly identified or charged in connection with the bribery scheme.
Homeland Security Investigations led the probe into the smuggling conspiracy. The investigation spanned from Colombia to El Paso, crossing multiple jurisdictions and requiring the cooperation of Colombian authorities to arrest and extradite Linero Pinto.
Linero Pinto now awaits sentencing in a federal facility. His co-conspirator's case remains open. And 42 families are still waiting for answers that almost certainly will never come.
When smuggling networks can bribe a nation's navy, load human beings onto boats bound for nowhere, and call it a business model, the problem is not a policy disagreement. It is a criminal enterprise, and it thrives every day the border stays porous and the journey stays profitable.
