Soldiers Who Smuggled Immigrants from Mexico While in Uniform Sentenced – By Steve Beynon (Military.com) / Sept 27, 2022
Two soldiers were sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to illegally smuggling Mexican nationals into the U.S. while in uniform as part of a larger circle of troops involved in the scheme.
Emmanuel Oppongagyare, 22, and Ralph Gregory Saint-Joie, 19, were sentenced Sept. 20 to 21 months and 13 months in prison, respectively. Oppongagyare was a soldier with the Pennsylvania National Guard, and Saint-Joie was an active-duty soldier. Both were stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.
The pair were stopped at a border control checkpoint in Hebbronville, Texas, where authorities discovered two undocumented immigrants in the trunk of the car. Both soldiers were wearing their Army uniforms.
The two were recruited to smuggle the immigrants from McAllen, Texas, a border town, to San Antonio, a 240-mile drive, according to the Justice Department. Both were paid $100 for gas money when they initially picked up the two Mexican nationals at the border in June 2021, but it isn’t clear how much they were going to be paid when the job was complete.
