News and Press Releases

Mexican National Sentenced for Unlawfully Possessing Firearms

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2012

BOISE – Ceila Ivonnie Loya, 32, a Mexican national formerly living in Wendell, Idaho, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for unlawful possession of a firearm, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. She pled guilty in October 2011.

According to the plea agreement, on September 9, 2010, Loya was found in possession of a 12 gauge shotgun and a .22 rifle. Loya admitted that she sold the firearms for $250 to a person prohibited from possessing firearms. The defendant is prohibited from possessing firearms because she is an alien illegally in the United States.

Loya's co-defendant, Juan Montejano Barraza, 41, was sentenced in December 2011 to 128 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and unlawful possession of a firearm by an illegal alien. Barraza was ordered to forfeit $100,000 in drug proceeds. His federal sentence will run concurrent to a six-year state prison sentence. He will be deported after he is released from prison.

The remaining co-defendant, Jose Dolores Leon-Aispuro, is a fugitive.

The case was investigated by the Idaho State Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).