Mexican man pleads guilty to smuggling migrants through Juárez tunnel linked to CJNG

Luis Carlos Dávalos López, a 29-year-old Mexican national, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Texas to conspiring to smuggle undocumented migrants into the United States through an underground tunnel linking Ciudad Juárez with El Paso. The U.S. Justice Department said the tunnel was discovered in January 2025.

Federal authorities began focusing on Dávalos López after intercepting phone calls between him and others involved in migrant smuggling through the passage. In several conversations, he specifically referred to the tunnel between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, including the number of migrants crossing it and the cost of using it.

The calls included references to charges of more than $30,000 for migrants seeking to enter the United States illegally through the tunnel, according to the department’s statement. Dávalos López and other defendants in the case were arrested in Mexico in April 2025 and later extradited to the United States.

Coult W. Markovsky, acting head of the FBI’s El Paso office, said the tunnel used to smuggle migrants, drugs and weapons had been built by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. “The discovery of this tunnel and the subsequent convictions of those involved in this operation underscore the FBI’s ongoing commitment, together with our partners, to dismantling human trafficking carried out by the CJNG,” Markovsky said.

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The discovery of this tunnel and the subsequent convictions of those involved in this operation underscore the FBI’s ongoing commitment, together with our partners, to dismantling human trafficking carried out by the CJNG.