Defendant Previously Convicted in California and Mississippi for Drugs and Firearm Offenses
Gulfport, Miss. - Aldo German Arechiga-Gutierrez, 45, an illegal alien from Mexico, pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden to unlawful reentry by an alien removed after conviction for an aggravated felony, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst, Jere T. Miles, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans, and Gregory A. Bovino, Chief Patrol Agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s New Orleans Sector.
Arechiga-Gutierrez will be sentenced by Judge Ozerden on June 24, 2019. He faces a potential maximum 20 years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine.
The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Office in Gulfport received information that Arechiga-Gutierrez had returned to the United States after being removed in 2014. An investigation by HSI determined that Arechiga-Gutierrez was residing in the Picayune area and employed in the southeastern Louisiana area. Arechiga-Gutierrez was positively identified and arrested. He later admitted to being a citizen of Mexico and to voluntarily entering and being in the U.S. unlawfully.
In 2002, Arechiga-Gutierrez pled guilty and was convicted in California for conspiracy to possess and sell methamphetamine. As a drug trafficking crime, the conviction qualified as an aggravated felony. Arechiga-Gutierrez was ordered removed from the United States to Mexico after serving his prison sentence.
Arechiga-Gutierrez then unlawfully returned to the United States and, in 2012, was convicted in the Southern District of Mississippi of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm. After completing his prison sentence, Arechiga-Gutierrez was again removed from the United States to Mexico in 2014.
U.S. Attorney Hurst commended the work of the Picayune Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Border Patrol. Assistant United States Attorney Stan Harris is the prosecutor for the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
