Associated Press - October 26, 2009 8:04 PM ET

PHOENIX (AP) - A Mexican citizen has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for holding illegal immigrants hostage at his Phoenix home.

Federal prosecutors say 53-year-old Feliciano Rojas-Vivar, of Puebla, Mexico, previously pleaded guilty to three counts of harboring illegal immigrants for profit and was sentenced last Friday in U.S. District Court.

His 30-year-old stepson was sentenced in March to 46 months in prison in the same case.

Prosecutors say Rojas-Vivar had a history of human smuggling and held the hostages in Phoenix in November 2007.

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