A judge has sentenced a 21-year-old Phoenix man to more than six years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a human smuggling operation he was running.
The smuggling ring led to a fatal crash involving a driver he recruited via Snapchat.
Isaiah Lorenzo Brinkley previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle immigrants for profit that placed lives in jeopardy and resulted in death.
He was sentenced by a federal judge in Tucson on Friday. The charges stem from a January 2020 incident where Brinkley's hired driver fled from a Border Patrol checkpoint near the southern Arizona community of Why.
The driver and one of the two Columbian immigrants he was carrying were killed in the crash. A lone survivor was seriously injured.