An Eagle Pass man was sentenced to nearly 19 years in federal prison for his leadership role in an illegal alien stash house operation.
According to court documents, Edgar Alejandro Elizondo was a co-leader and organizer in an illegal alien smuggling organization (ASO). Out of his eight-count indictment from April 2025, six allege that he conspired to transport illegal aliens and to “conceal, harbor, and shield” them from detection.
The remaining two counts of the indictment accused Elizondo of conspiring to hold an individual hostage in exchange for payment.
The ASO’s operations were discovered by a Homeland Security Investigation Task Force and included several “stash houses” in Eagle Pass, which fed the group’s transportation cell. This transportation cell used tractor trailers.
Elizondo personally held illegal aliens at gunpoint, according to court records, and was also involved in a gang shootout in Houston to recover illegal aliens taken from a stash house he ran.
He was arrested in July 2025 and has been held in custody since pleading guilty in December 2025 to one count of “conspiracy to transport illegal aliens placing lives in jeopardy.”
On Friday, Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses sentenced Elizondo to 225 months in prison.
The Western District of Texas reports that Elizondo’s prosecution is part of an initiative of the Homeland Security Task Force, which is “a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.”
