Two face getting deported
Two men facing deportation from Arkansas to their native Mexico allegedly have violated state laws after entering the U.S. without authorization.
Abelardo Bahena-Solano, 63, allegedly reported the theft of a .38-caliber handgun from his house on Collins Avenue in De Queen, Ark., to the De Queen Police Department on July 1, 2016, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas. The report caught the attention of Texarkana-based Special Agent Jeremy Ridenour of the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ridenour’s investigation revealed Bahena-Solano had been convicted of transporting illegal aliens by a federal court in the Eastern District of Arkansas in 1987. In 2002, Bahena-Solano was
allegedly charged with discharging a firearm within city limits in Sevier County Circuit Court and ordered to leave the country. Bahena-Solano was allegedly removed from the
U.S. again in 2005 and in 2007.
Ridenour and De Queen police Lt. Chad Bradshaw went March 29 to Bahena-Solano’s home in De Queen. The officers asked about the stolen pistol and asked Bahena-Solano if he owns any other weapons. Bahena-Solano showed the officers a long gun inside a van in his driveway. After allegedly admitting to being a “casual user of methamphetamine,” Bahena-Solano showed officers a Ruger Super Blackhawk pistol he kept under his living room sofa and another pistol, loaded with two .45-caliber rounds, in a bedroom dresser.
“Two glass pipes, one containing residue, a plastic straw, pieces of sooted foil, and a small clear plastic bag containing a substance appearing to Lt. Bradshaw to be approximately one gram of methamphetamine, all within feet of where the Ruger Super Blackhawk pistol had been recovered,” were found in the home as well, the complaint states. After acquiring a search warrant, an additional 1,000 rounds of ammunition of various calibers and gauges, and firearms parts were discovered in an outbuilding.
Bahena-Solano appeared before a U.S. magistrate judge for an initial appearance on the complaint Wednesday. He is being held in the Miller County jail. Alejandro Aguilar-Sanchez is being held in the Miller County jail as well.
Aguilar-Sanchez, 34, was transferred there from the Sevier County jail where officials realized he was likely in the country unlawfully. Aguilar-Sanchez had previously been removed from the U.S. in 2009 and sentenced to a 60-day jail term for illegal entry, the complaint against him alleges.
Aguilar-Sanchez was allegedly arrested in Bowie County, Texas, in June 2011 for felony driving while intoxicated and sentenced to a five-year prison term. He was allegedly arrested again for illegal entry into the U.S. twice in 2013 and sentenced to 180 days in jail. The complaint does not specify why Aguilar-Sanchez was booked into the Sevier County jail this year. AguilarSanchez made an intitial court appearance April 3 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Bryant.
Neither man’s case has been presented to a federal grand jury yet for formal indictment. The men face federal prison time and deportation.