A Belizean national on the list of U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s most-wanted deportable aliens has been charged in Los Angeles with illegal re-entry into the United States following his deportation, it was announced Friday.
Santos Moreira, 46, who currently is in custody in Texas after returning to the U.S. illegally, was found in Los Angeles County on Nov. 2, 2015, according to an indictment returned against him on Jan. 25 of this year by a Los Angeles federal grand jury, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Moreira previously was deported from the United States on three separate occasions — in December 1995, September 1999 and October 2010, the indictment states. He is charged with re-entering and remaining in the U.S. knowingly and voluntarily without having obtained permission to reapply for admission into the United States following deportation.
Moreira’s criminal history includes a conviction in Los Angeles County Superior Court for possession for sale of cocaine base in 1991, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison, according to the indictment. In 1992, Moreira was convicted in Superior Court of second-degree robbery with an enhancement for personally using a firearm. He was sentenced to five years in state prison for that offense, the indictment states.
Moreira is currently in custody in a Texas state prison for a 2018 drug-related conviction. He is expected to be brought to Los Angeles to face the federal illegal re-entry charge in the coming months. If convicted, Moreira faces up to 20 years in federal prison, according to prosecutors.