March 21, 2014 - 12:09pm
Jim McBride

Federal authorities charged a Mexican national Friday with illegal re-entry into the United States after he was arrested Wednesday following an Interstate 40 traffic stop in Potter County. Juan Ramon Gonzales-Gonzales, 33, was charged in Amarillo's U.S. District Court and was granted a court-appointed attorney during a Friday morning hearing, federal court records show.

About 9 a.m. Wednesday, a Potter County sheriff’s deputy stopped a Chevrolet Suburban traveling on Interstate 40 after he observed occupants of the vehicle were not wearing seat belts, according to a federal complaint. The deputy also suspected the people in the Suburban were in the United States illegally and contacted the U.S. Border Patrol.

The Suburban contained several suspected undocumented immigrants, who were placed in the custody of Border Patrol agents, according to information from the Potter County sheriff’s office.

Gonzales-Gonzales, who presented a Mexican driver’s license in the name of Ivan Sanchez, admitted that he was in the country illegally, and he and 10 passengers were transported to the Amarillo Border Patrol station, where agents identified Gonzales-Gonzales through fingerprints and other records checks.

Gonzales-Gonzales was convicted in a Utah federal court in 2010 of transporting illegal aliens and was sentenced to a three-year prison term. On Dec. 20, 2012, he was deported from the United States near Laredo.

Gonzales-Gonzales remains in custody at the Randall County jail under a hold from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to jail records.

http://amarillo.com/news/latest-news...0-traffic-stop