A 34-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison after he was caught trying to smuggle 36 migrants near Sarita, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Texas.

Eusebio Cavazos pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges on February 2025, according to a news release.

Cavazos was arrested on Dec. 13, 2024 after an inspection of a tractor-trailer he was driving at the Border Patrol checkpoint near Sarita led to the discovery of 36 migrants in the back of the trailer.

The release noted that it was 54 degrees inside the trailer, and the doors were locked with no means for the migrants to escape.

According to the news release, Cavazos said he had been hired to smuggle the migrants from Donna to Houston and was expected to be paid $1,000 per person he was transporting.

“Human smuggling is a dangerous, and sometimes deadly, practice, and those that choose to engage in it deserve the maximum punishment available,” U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei stated in the news release. “All it would have taken here is a car accident or a cooling malfunction for these people to have lost their lives.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol conducted the investigation

Cavazos’ sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.