Two illegal aliens who were arrested in Mississippi will spend nearly a year in jail.
36-year-old Luis Enrique Moran-Vargaz, of Mexico, was sentenced to 8 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to transport illegal aliens within the United States.
As a result of this felony conviction, Moran-Vargas could face deportation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after he completes his sentence.
Additionally, one of the passengers that Moran-Vargaz was transporting was sentenced. 50-year-old Juan Antonio Martinez-Alonso, also an illegal alien from Mexico, was sentenced yesterday to nine months in federal prison for illegally re-entering the United States after being lawfully removed following a felony conviction.
50-year-old Juan Antonio Martinez-Alonso, also an illegal alien from Mexico, was in the vehicle at the time of the arrest, and he was sentenced to 9 months in prison. After an investigation, Martinez-Alonso was charged with illegally re-entering the United States after being lawfully removed following a felony conviction.
A news release from U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst detailed the arrest, which occurred on the Coast in November 2017.
“On November 28, 2017, a Dodge Ram pick-up truck driven by Moran-Vargaz, and with Martinez-Alonso as a passenger, was stopped by a City of Gautier Police Officer on Interstate-10 in Jackson County, Mississippi, for speeding in a construction zone. While the Dodge Ram was designed to seat five people, the police officer observed that, in addition to the driver, there were six unidentified passengers for a total of seven occupants in the vehicle. The vehicle occupants provided Mexican identification documents and the six passengers could not be identified by the driver. The U.S. Border Patrol was notified, and a Border Patrol Agent responded to the scene.”
Further investigation revealed that Martinez-Alonso previously had been removed from the United States twice in 2016.
If Moran-Vargaz or Martinez-Alonso are deported and re-enter the country illegally during their period of supervised release, they could face additional penalties.
