Nearly six years after a man fatally shot 23 people in a racist attack targeting Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border, the gunman's criminal case is set to come to a close.

A 42-year-old El Paso man at the center of a human smuggling and money laundering operation has pleaded guilty to federal charges, officials announced this week. Jose Luis Avalos, identified by prosecutors as the ringleader of the smuggling scheme,