Deported immigrant found in Gulfport can stay - in prison, federal judge says

Vehicle, $107,860 seized

BY ROBIN FITZGERALD
rfitzgerald@sunherald.comJune 12, 2014
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Leyva-Gonzalez

GULFPORT -- A deported immigrant found in Gulfport can stay, a judge ruled at the man's sentencing Thursday. He must serve 22 months in a federal prison before he is turned over to immigration officials.

Judge Sul Ozerden sentenced Jose Arturo Leyva-Gonzalez, 25, on Thursday.
Leyva-Gonzalez, from Mexico, has been in custody since Nov. 22, when a Harrison County deputy sheriff found him driving without a license. The deputy also found $107,860 hidden between the vehicle's radiator and condenser.

The Drug Enforcement Administration seized the cash and the sheriff's office seized the vehicle.
Immigration agents checked his background and found he was deported in January 2010 and later showed up in Texas, where he was convicted of a felony theft in January 2013.

Court papers show he was sent back to Mexico and told not to return without permission, but illegally crossed the border in Laredo in July 2013 and was returned to Mexico again.

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