STEVEN Villagomez Pangelinan and William J. Cabrera, who both pled guilty to the charge of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, will be sentenced on separate days by the federal court.
Cabrera, who pled guilty on Oct. 1, 2024, will be sentenced on March 11, 2025 at 9 a.m. while Pangelinan, who pled guilty on Jan. 1, 2025, will be sentenced on May 16, 2025 at 9 a.m.
According to the indictment against Pangelinan and Cabrera, 21 illegal aliens from China paid $4,500 each to be smuggled into Guam by boat.
“Given the number of passengers, two boats operated by four total boat crew (two crew members on each boat) were utilized to facilitate the transport. The boat passage commenced from Saipan at night and took approximately twelve hours to complete the journey of approximately 100 nautical miles (115 statute miles) to Guam. Upon arriving at Ritidian Point on the north shore of Guam, the two boats took turns pulling up to the reef line so the Illegal Aliens could jump off the boat and swim and wade to shore. After dropping off the Illegal Aliens, the two boats departed Guam and returned to the CNMI,” the indictment stated.
The first boat was a 25-foot, 1981 Boston Whaler Frontier operated by William J. Cabrera Jr., and an individual originally identified only as “K.P.”
The second boat was an 18-foot, 1996 Mckee Craft Pulse 1800 operated by Steven Villagomez Pangelinan and Steven Chris Tomokane.
A task force consisting of federal and local law enforcers arrested Pangelinan on Sept. 17, 2024, and Cabrera on Sept. 18, 2024.
Tomokane was charged separately and pled guilty to the charge of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens on Sept. 10, 2024. The District Court for the NMI scheduled Tomokane’s sentencing for March 28, 2025, at 9 a.m.
Pangelinan and Cabrera were recently cited for violating their release conditions after testing positive for methamphetamine.
Pangelinan, through his attorney Bruce Berline, contested the test results.
Judge Manglona found that Pangelinan violated his conditional release but did not revoke his pretrial release conditions. Instead, she modified and included home confinement and electronic monitoring as part of his pretrial release conditions.
Cabrera, through attorney Richard Miller, did not contest the violation and agreed that “the evidence is sufficient to find that he violated the terms of his release as alleged in the petition submitted by the United States Probation Office.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Flores Jr. appeared for the federal government.
As for K.P. or Kevin Hocog Pangelinan, he pled not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens. His trial is scheduled for Feb. 11, 2025, at 10 a.m.
