COLUMBUS, Ohio – U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II announced today results of targeted enforcement actions in the Southern District of Ohio in support of Operation Take Back America. These results involve new charges, convictions and prison sentences for illegal aliens with prior criminal histories including violent crime, drug trafficking and sex offenses.
“As our results over the last month have shown, my Office is laser-focused on prosecuting illegal aliens who illegally enter our country and commit crimes that threaten the safety of our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II. “Our ability to hold these offenders accountable is the direct result of the painstaking efforts of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners.”
Today, Cenuhe Zepeda-Vibanco, 37, a convicted felon who is an illegal alien from Mexico, was sentenced in federal district court in Columbus to 170 months in prison for his role in a drug trafficking organization that distributed fentanyl, carfentanil and heroin to multiple counties in the Southern District of Ohio.
Zepeda-Vibanco possessed more than 1.3 kilograms of fentanyl and carfentanil, an animal tranquilizer that is 100 times more lethal than fentanyl. At the time that he committed this offense, Zepeda-Vibanco was on federal supervised release for illegal reentry.
Zepeda-Vibanco is the sixth illegal alien with a criminal history to be sentenced, convicted or charged in the Southern District of Ohio in the last month:
Also in federal district court in Columbus today, Jaime Fernandez-Alacron, an illegal alien from Colombia, was sentenced to 37 months in prison for illegally reentering the United States after sustaining an aggravated felony conviction. Fernandez-Alacron has prior federal convictions for conspiracy to commit kidnapping in aid of racketeering, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and illegal reentry. On Feb. 3, in Columbus, Abel Velasquez-Avecedo, an illegal alien from Mexico, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for illegally possessing a firearm and possessing cocaine and methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Velasquez-Avecedo fired multiple shots from a vehicle after an argument with another individual and was found to be in possession of a pistol and several baggies of cocaine and methamphetamine. He previously had been convicted of assault and operating a vehicle while intoxicated and had absconded from probation supervision prior to committing these offenses. On Jan. 27, a federal grand jury in Columbus indicted Luis Cabrales-Guerra, an illegal alien from Mexico, for allegedly conspiring to distribute fentanyl and for illegally reentering the United States following his previous federal conviction for an aggravated drug felony. Cabrales-Guerra was previously removed from the United States to Mexico multiple times in 2010 and 2011. In 2016, Cabrales-Guerra was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute heroin in the District of Minnesota. He was again removed from the United States to Mexico in 2019 after serving his sentence in that case. On Jan. 22, in Cincinnati, William Noe Cuellar Montufa, an illegal alien from Guatemala, pleaded guilty to illegally reentering the United States. He was convicted in Warren County in January 2006 for attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and in September 2007 for unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. Cuellar Montufa was deported in 2008 following his terms of incarceration and is the subject of a warrant for homicide in Guatemala. On Jan. 15, in Columbus, Daniel H. Rodriguez-Andrade, an illegal alien from Mexico, was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for possessing with intent to distribute more than two kilograms of heroin and illegally reentering the United States. He had been deported from the United States on four previous occasions and, at the time of the offense, was on supervised release for a previous federal illegal reentry conviction in Arizona. “We will continue to hold criminal illegal aliens accountable for their actions under Operation Take Back America. And we will do everything in our power to ensure that their unwelcome stay in the United States includes a trip to the Bureau of Prisons,” said U.S. Attorney Gerace.
Deputy Criminal Chief Brian J. Martinez and Assistant United States Attorneys Nicole Pakiz, Elizabeth Geraghty, Sheila G. Lafferty and Danielle E. Margeaux prosecuted the cases as part of Operation Take Back America , a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.
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Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — Southern District of Ohio — U.S. Department of Justice press release.