RALEIGH - Robert J. Higdon, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, announces that a federal grand jury in Raleigh has returned a Superseding Indictment charging ALI KHALESEH DEHGHAN, age 35, from Wake County, with two counts of alien in possession of a firearm and failure to comply with terms of supervised release. The grand jury also returned an indictment charging LUIS JAVIER GORTAREZ-JIMENEZ, age 24, of Mexico, with Illegal Reentry and Alien in Possession of Ammunition.
The Superseding Indictment alleges that DEHGHAN, failed to comply with terms of release under supervision, specifically by committing other criminal acts, including but not limited to his arrest in Wake County for Carrying a Concealed Firearm.
As alleged in the charging document, DEHGHAN, an alien illegally and unlawfully in the United States, did possess a firearm in February 2017, and again on February 2019, in and affecting commerce.
If convicted, DEHGHAN would face maximum penalties of twenty-one years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and a term of supervised release following any term of imprisonment.
If convicted of illegal reentry and alien in possession of ammunition, GORTAREZ-JIMENEZ, previously deported and found in Wake County, would face maximum penalties of twelve years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and a term of supervised release following any term of imprisonment.
The charges and allegations contained in the indictments are merely accusations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
The cases are being investigated by ICE’s Enforcement Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
