Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Jeronimo Quiahua-Garcia (21, Veracruz, Mexico) has pleaded guilty to illegally reentering the United States as a deported alien. Quiahua-Garcia faces a maximum penalty of two years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
According to court documents, Quiahua-Garcia was removed from the United States to Mexico on January 11, 2020, through Nogales, Arizona, and again on January 20, 2020, through Naco, Arizona. On May 24, 2022, law enforcement officers stopped a vehicle traveling southbound on I-75 in Hernando County, Florida. Quiahua-Garcia was a passenger in that vehicle, hidden among luggage in the back seat. Quiahua-Garcia did not know the driver of the vehicle. He said that he had paid the driver to transport him from Greely, Colorado to Plant City, Florida.
This case was investigated by United States Custom and Border Protection – United States Border Patrol, and the Florida Highway Patrol. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David W.A. Chee.