Jan.23, 2010, 01:39 pm

The ringleader remains hospitalized, but other defendants in a case that involved human trafficking and money laundering were sentenced by a federal judge in Austin last week.

Rosalinda Trevino-Alvarez, 34, the primary defendant, won’t appear in court until after she is released from the hospital, but Mike Lemoine, public information officer with the IRS criminal investigations division, said she is expected to receive a 20-year sentence.

There were a total of 19 defendants in the case and three are still fugitives.

Charges ranged from conspiracy to smuggle, transport and harbor illegal aliens, hostage taking and forced labor to money laundering and weapons offenses. Defendants sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel were: Luz Maria Garcia-Garza, 21 months; Julio Cesar Salgado-Ortega, 71 months; Alejandro Guzman-Ortega, 37 months; Argeo Salgado-Ortega, 150 months; Saul Romero-Salgado, 144 months and Fulgencio Loredo-Rubio, 63 months.

Trevino-Alvarez, Garcia-Garza, Alejandro Guzman-Ortega and Julio Cesar Salgado-Ortega were arrested July 16, 2008, when law officers from eight jurisdictions swarmed a San Marcos mobile home at the Regency Mobile Home Park off Post Road.

Officers rescued 26 people from Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and Nicaragua who were in this country illegally. Police said the trailer had no air conditioning, and described it as sweltering.

The group had been kept under armed guard and authorities found one loaded handgun inside the trailer and another in a vehicle outside.

Eight women, including one pregnant, and 18 men were rescued. Nine of them had to be treated at Central Texas Medical Center for dehydration and open wounds.

The raid resulted from concerned calls to law enforcement by the families of some of the people being held. SMPD Chief Howard Williams said the smugglers had contacted the family members, threatening to kill their loved ones if they didn’t pay up.

Trevino-Alvarez was arrested the night of the raid in Staples. Police had followed her from the scene and said she had two female aliens with her. Court documents said the person named on the mobile home’s lease, Mary Salinas, told investigators that Trevino-Alvarez “smuggled approximately two or three loads of aliens each week, with each load consisting of approximately 15-30 aliens.”

Court documents also said Salinas said the mobile home was one of a number of locations aliens were held “pending payment of their smuggling fees.”

The operation charged $2,000 to $4,000 to bring the people into the country, keeping them briefly in Reynosa and then having them walk for two nights “through the brush” before they were picked up and brought to San Marcos.

Once at the mobile home, they were “required to remove their shoes and outer garments,” and told to make cell phone calls to friends and family for an additional $2,000.

Other defendants, and their depositions, were: Juanita Leija-Trevino, five years probation; Sandra Leija, 24 months imprisonment; Marisavette Esteves-Leija, five years probation; Wendy Nadine Adame, five years probation; Letecia Ann Miranda, five years probation; Leslie Denise Vargas, three years probation; Randy Rene Contreras, three years probation; and Concepcion Loredo-Leija, five years probation.

Still at large are Luis Loredo-Rubio, Mariam Salgado-Ortega and Mario Alberto Salgado.

There is no parole in the federal prison sentence, meaning each defendant will have to serve their full sentence.