McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) A man from Mexico has admitted guilt to charges of transporting migrants and leaving a deceased migrant’s body by a roadside in South Texas, according to U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ganjei.

Authorities report that 24-year-old Victor Manuel Martinez-Gallegos, who resided in Edinburg, collected several migrants and took them to a stash house on May 27, 2024, in Brownsville. This group included a Guatemalan individual who, officials state, passed away at the stash house under Martinez-Gallegos’s watch.

Martinez-Gallegos confessed to abandoning the body near a road in Brownsville, where human remains were later discovered and identified as the missing person, Ganjei explained.

“Human smuggling is an immoral and perilous operation where smugglers frequently lack mercy or compassion for those they transport,” Ganjei stated. “I urge anyone contemplating hiring a smuggler either for themselves or their relatives to reconsider. Stay home and stay safe.”

Martinez-Gallegos’s sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 17 before U.S. District Judge Rolando Olvera, with a potential penalty of life imprisonment and fines up to $250,000.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.