Three Mission residents were among the four men sentenced to federal prison for their involvement in "inhumanely" transporting migrants into the United States, according to a Wednesday news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office Southern District of Texas. 

According to the release, 29-year-old Diego Flores, 34-year-old Gerardo Villarreal, 35-year-old Gilberto Rios and 46-year-old Antonio Cuevas-Lozano, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport or harbor undocumented individuals within the United States.

Villarreal also admitted to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The four men were part of a "large-scale smuggling conspiracy" involving transporting thousands of migrants in containers.

Another individual, Noe Vasquez, was sentenced to 12 years in connection with the same smuggling scheme on Feb. 1, according to the release.

At the time of Vasquez's sentencing, testimony revealed that the smuggling organization moved approximately 3,000 non-U.S. citizens and used firearms to control them, the release stated. 

According to the release, the migrants were moved in groups of at least 70 and placed inside containers that were drilled closed from the outside and loaded onto trailers and transported "in the hot Texas climate."

Flores acted in a "leadership role" in the organization and hired "hot shot drivers" to transport the containers starting in April 2022, according to the release.

"If ever intercepted at the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint, the drivers would minimize culpability on those within the smuggling organization, as the drivers were unaware of what they were transporting," the release stated.

The four men built the compartments at a ranch in Mission, and utilized multiple firearms to threaten the individuals.

A federal judge ordered Flores to 13 years in prison. Villarreal received 10 years for the smuggling conspiracy and an additional five years for the firearms' conviction, along with two years of supervised release, according to the release.

Rios and Cuevas-Lozano were sentenced to five and two years, respectively. Cuevos-Lozano is expected to face removal proceedings following his imprisonment.

"Human smugglers ply their trade praying on the vulnerable," said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in a statement. "These smugglers cramped dozens of migrants into wooden crates and then bolted those crates shut, leaving the migrants to the mercy of South Texas’s brutal heat. Such conduct was not just predatory; it also demonstrated a total disregard for the value of human life. Today’s sentences reflect how my office will not rest until we disrupt and dismantle the deadly human smuggling operations that cause so much sorrow along the Southwest border."

The convicted men will remain in federal custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.