Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Western District of Louisiana
Thursday, November 7, 2013
LAFAYETTE, La. - United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that Abelardo Antunez-Gama, 46, of Mexico, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard T. Haik to 20 months in prison for illegal reentry with deportation upon service of sentence and no supervised release to follow. Antunez-Gama pleaded guilty August 8, 2013.
According to evidence presented at the guilty plea, local law enforcement found Antunez-Gama after conducting a traffic stop Jan. 23, 2013 on Interstate 10, near Exit 36, east of Lake Charles, La. He was handed over to U.S. Border Patrol agents who discovered he had reentered the United States illegally three times previously, and had prior drug and firearm convictions. The defendant was convicted on March 2001 for possessing a firearm during commission of a drug crime and was deported in May 2001. He was found to be in the Unites States again in 2011 and was removed in May 2011. He was arrested near the Mexican border town of Del Rio, Texas, on June 9, 2011, was convicted on illegal reentry charges on Nov. 17, 2011, served time in prison for the offense, and then was removed from the United States again in September of 2012.
The U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Myers P. Namie prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
