Company Fined for Its Role in Immigrant Busing Scheme
A bus company has admitted its role in a conspiracy to smuggle illegal Mexican immigrants into the United States, and was fined $3 million.
Federal prosecutors said Gonzalez Inc. transported more than 42,000 passengers, virtually all illegal immigrants, on a route between Arizona and Los Angeles in 2000 and 2001.
Prosecutors said that during that time, the company, which operated as Golden State Transportation, earned $3.1 million in revenue.
Golden State Transportation ceased operating in August 2002 and shortly afterward filed for bankruptcy.
The company and numerous employees were indicted in 2001.
Under a plea deal reached Friday, the company was sentenced to probation, fined $3 million, and agreed to forfeit a bus terminal in Phoenix, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizona.
The company admitted that it allowed smugglers to buy blocks of tickets for illegal immigrants, who boarded its buses in cities near the border for travel to Los Angeles.
Nine people have pleaded guilty to charges related to the investigation, and seven are scheduled for trial in August.
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