Cartel Member Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for Deadly Texas Human Smuggling Case

A federal judge in Texas sentenced a man from Houston, who was working with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, to 35 years in prison in connection with helping run a deadly human smuggling network. The man was already serving an 11-year prison sentence on a separate but connected drug case.

This week, 26-year-old Roland Heit Martinez appeared before U.S. District Court Chief Judge Alia Moses in Del Rio, Texas, who sentenced him to 35 years in prison for his role in the deadly human smuggling operation.

Since Martinez was already serving an 11-year prison sentence on the drug case, Judge Moses’ new sentence will run consecutively, leading to a total sentence of 46 years for both cases.

He had pleaded guilty to the deadly human smuggling charge in December 2025 and had been in federal custody since January 2023, when authorities arrested him on a separate but connected drug trafficking case.

According to information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, Martinez was an active member of a CJNG-linked human smuggling network that operated in Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Louisiana. Federal prosecutors said Martinez coordinated drivers for smuggling operations and helped handle payments to network members through money transfers and Cash App.

Authorities were able to link Martinez as one of the coordinators behind an August 2022 deadly smuggling attempt where the U.S. driver and two migrants died in Kimble County during a single-vehicle crash when they tried to avoid authorities.

 Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.