Man caught in Polk County gets 2 years for harboring illegal aliens
By Staff
Posted Jul 6, 2017 at 2:37 PM
Updated Jul 6, 2017 at 2:40 PM
ASHEVILLE – U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger today sentenced Omar Abisai Ramirez-Ramos, 34, of Guatemala, to two years in prison and three years of supervised release on illegal re-entry after deportation and harboring illegal aliens charges, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Ramirez-Ramos pleaded guilty to the offenses in December.
According to today’s sentencing hearing and court documents filed in the case, on Oct. 9, a Polk County deputy conducted a traffic stop of the vehicle Ramirez-Ramos was driving.
Over the course of the traffic stop, law enforcement determined that Ramirez-Ramos was an illegal alien who had been previously deported three times from the United States.
Law enforcement also determined that eight passengers of the vehicle were also illegal aliens.
Court records indicate that Ramirez-Ramos told law enforcement that he was being paid $1,000 to transport the eight individuals from Phoenix, Arizona to Charlotte, and that he did not know their countries of origin.
Ramirez-Ramos is in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
The defendant will also be subject to deportation proceedings upon the completion of his federal sentence.
http://www.blueridgenow.com/news/201...illegal-aliens