Delco Man Gets Prison In Migrant Smuggling, Exploitation Scheme

CHESTER, PA — A Venezuela native living in Delaware County was sentenced to federal incarceration for smuggling South American migrants to the United States so he could exploit their labor and enrich himself.

United States Attorney David Metcalf said Cesar David Martinez-Gonzalez, 40, of Chester, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $20,560 in restitution.

Martinez-Gonzalez was charged by indictment in July of last year and pleaded guilty in November to one count of conspiring to illegally bring aliens to the United States and to encourage and induce aliens to enter the United States for private financial gain, five counts of encouraging and inducing aliens to illegally enter the United States for private financial gain, and four counts of transfer of an unlawful identification document.

The object of the conspiracy, for the personal financial gain of Martinez-Gonzalez and others, was to illegally smuggle citizens of South American countries into the United States across the U.S.-Mexico border, and to encourage and induce them to enter the United States without prior authorization, authorities said.

Martinez-Gonzalez entered the United States illegally.

He then launched a scheme and wired money to migrants in South America and fronted money to "coyotes" in Mexico, who guided migrants across the Rio Grande and through holes in the U.S.-Mexico border wall, according to authorities.

He also provided migrants with information to give to Customs and Border Protection so that they could be released — on parole — to his residences. Martinez-Gonzalez then paid for airplane flights to bring the migrants to Philadelphia, and, once they arrived, transported them to houses in and around Chester, authorities said.

At this point, Martinez-Gonzalez and his associates would impose upon the migrants thousands or tens-of-thousands of dollars in "debts" owed to him, which the migrants would have to pay off through working long hours at factories and other worksites and forfeiting half of their weekly wages to him.

Martinez-Gonzalez also helped the migrants obtain false identification documents and hourly work through various staffing agencies. The debts imposed by the defendant were well in excess of what it cost to get the individuals to Chester and house them there, according to authorities.

Over the two years Martinez-Gonzalez operated his scheme, he induced and helped to illegally bring more than 100 aliens to the United States, all for his private financial gain, authorities said.

Martinez-Gonzalez imposed a daily pressure campaign on the migrants to keep working, for whatever hours they could get from the staffing agencies, so that they could keep making "debt" payments to him, according to authorities.

He kept careful records of the debts migrants had paid to him and still owed to him, demonstrating that the illegal scheme was, for him, about making money, authorities said.

Martinez-Gonzalez's scheme entailed abuse of the nation’s immigration system, as well as of the many migrants he induced to come to the United States, according to authorities.

Martinez-Gonzalez was granted Temporary Protected Status in the United States in March 2024, which he took advantage of by continuing to perpetrate his scheme after being granted status to remain in the country.