NASHVILLE (AP) — A retired Tennessee Highway Patrol sergeant was sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to transporting a woman into the country illegally.

U.S. Attorney Donald Cochran's office says Ronald Edward Strickland was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville. He pleaded guilty June 20.

Court documents say Strickland planned to smuggle the 22-year-old old woman from Honduras into the U.S.

Filings say Strickland texted her in January 2016 about meeting for a sexual relationship. He texted someone in Honduras, among others, about it.

Filings say Strickland drove to Houston, Texas in July 2016 to get the woman and drive her to his Franklin, Tennessee home.

An investigation found Strickland paid a coyote $8,000 to smuggle her, and Strickland had an apartment in Honduras and regularly traveled there.