PHOENIX, Arizona — The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona charged 217 people with immigration-related crimes during a week-long sting from March 15 to March 21, 2025, aimed at illegal border crossings and smuggling rings. Announced Friday, the Phoenix bust nabs over 200 for immigration crimes hooked 91 aliens who’d been deported and snuck back, 103 caught slipping in fresh, and 23 linked to 15 cases of smuggling others into and around the state.
A lineup of feds—ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Border Patrol, DEA, FBI, U.S. Marshals, and ATF—teamed up to run it down. Key catches: Juan Antonio Ruiz, a Mexican citizen with U.S. residency, got indicted March 18 for naturalization fraud. He claimed in 2015 he had no secret crimes—turns out he’d copped to sexual conduct with a minor and attempted molestation in 2021, acts from 2003 to 2008, nabbed in 2018 (Case: CR-25-01502-TUC-AMM).
Jose Alejandro Medrano-Renteria was busted hauling aliens for $1,000 each. Border Patrol tried stopping his car; he floored it, hit spikes, lost a tire, and kept going ‘til everyone jumped—he hid in a tree ‘til a K9 dragged him out (Case: 25-MJ-01687-MAA). Tracy Ann Cook, Alex Puella, and Yesenia Monique Ortiz got caught when Tohono O’odham cops pulled their ride over and found three illegals—one Uzbek—jammed in back, confirmed by Border Patrol (Case: 25-MJ-01704-MAA).
That’s 217 charges—re-entries, new crossings, smugglers big and small—all innocent ‘til a jury rules. The border’s a hot zone; this just cranks the pressure.
