A Belgrade woman pleaded guilty this week to harboring people in the country illegally.
Eustolia Cassareal-Morales in November admitted to harboring 12 people without legal status in a Belgrade home. She faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each person lacking legal status.
Some information about the case was sealed by federal judge Kathleen DeSoto in Missoula earlier this year. In other court documents, federal immigration officers said they interviewed two people who described being smuggled into the United States from Mexico. Investigators eventually linked one smuggler to Cassareal-Morales, and searched the Belgrade home in August.
They found a dozen people living inside without legal documents. Cassareal-Moreles told officers at the scene she was aware the people living there did not have legal status.
Some in the residence told officers they were working in the Belgrade area and paying Cassareal-Morales rent. Three said that she had sold them fake identification papers.
An attorney for the defendant declined to comment. Cassareal-Morales is set to be sentenced in April by U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen.
