Smuggler’s Plea Exposes Vermont Network | Burlington News

Burlington News Today | 2 Min News | The Daily News Now! · Aug 4, 2026 · 1m

A Mexican man named Armando Paulino Estudillo has pleaded guilty to helping smuggle his girlfriend into the U.S. from Canada, admitting he paid Vermont immigrant rights activist José Ignacio De La Cruz $2,000 to arrange it. Both men were arrested in April—Estudillo in New Hampshire, De La Cruz in Essex—with De La Cruz now facing multiple smuggling and document fraud charges while remaining free on bond. Estudillo, who’s been deported three times before, claims he’d already spent $5,000 and had $3,000 more ready for the trip, though the first attempt failed and he later got a $2,000 refund…