Gulfport, Miss. – Wilson Orlando Hercules, 33, an illegal alien from Honduras, pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden, to Unlawful Reentry by an Alien Removed After Conviction of a Felony, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst, and Diane Witte, Field Office Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement & Removal Operations in New Orleans.
Hercules is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Ozerden on January 15, 2021. He faces a potential maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, in addition to 3 years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
On February 22, 2020, Bay St. Louis Police stopped Hercules’ vehicle after a citizen complaint regarding narcotics. Hercules, who was driving a van, was charged with simple possession of a state misdemeanor amount of crack cocaine and a paraphernalia pipe. He later was arrested by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO), who positively identified Hercules through DHS computerized record checks (including fingerprints and photographs) at the Gulfport ICE Office.
In 2019, Hercules was previously convicted of the federal felony of Unlawful Reentry Into the United States by an Alien After Removal. Hercules had been sentenced in 2019 to time-served plus one year of supervised release and was surrendered to ICE for removal from the United States. Thereafter, he was removed by ICE to his home nation of Honduras.
Hercules has been lawfully removed from the U.S. to Honduras on seven occasions starting in 2011, and this is his eighth illegal reentry after removal. Until his earlier prosecution in Mississippi, Hercules had never been prosecuted for Unlawful Reentry After Removal.
U.S. Attorney Hurst praised the work of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, Enforcement Removal Operations; the City of Bay St. Louis Police Department; and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant United States Attorney Stan Harris is the prosecutor for the case.