A 33-year-old illegal entrant from Honduras pleaded guilty on Friday to Unlawful Reentry by an Alien Removed After Conviction of a Felony. He pleaded guilty to the charges before US District Judge Sul Ozerden, of Southern District of Mississippi.
Wilson Orlando Hercules, an illegal alien was found guilty of entering the US illegally after having been deported a whopping seven times earlier. His sentencing is scheduled for 15 January 2021 by Judge Ozden. The potential punishment Hercules faces include a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, along with three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
Simple Charges, A Big Arrest
Hercules' vehicle was intercepted by Bay St. Louis Police on 22 February 2020. This was after a citizen complaint related to narcotics. Hercules, who was at the wheel, was slapped with rather simple charges initially—state misdemeanor amount of crack cocaine and the possession of a paraphernalia pipe.
However, he was later arrested by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO). Hercules was positively identified by the DHS computerized record checks (which includes photographs and fingerprints) at the ICE office in Gulfport, the second-largest city in the state of Mississippi.
Removed from US Seven Times
This is not the first time that Hercules has had run-ins with US law enforcement agencies. Beginning in 2011, He has been lawfully removed from the US for an alarming seven times, making the current instance his eighth illegal reentry after removal. In 2019, the Honduran was earlier convicted for the federal felony of Unlawful Reentry Into the United States by an Alien After Removal.
He was sentenced to 2019 to time-served plus one year of supervised release in 2019 and was surrendered to ICE, who oversaw his removal from the US. He was removed from the US and sent to his home nation—Honduras. Up until his earlier prosecution in the state of Mississippi, Hercules had not been prosecuted for the crime of Unlawful Reentry After Removal.
