Alien Sentenced for Illegal Reentry Subsequent to Multiple Deportations

RALEIGH – Robert J. Higdon, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, announces that LUIS LAURO ZAMORA-ESPIRIQUETA, age 53, of Mexico, was sentenced in Raleigh by Senior United States District Court Judge W. Earl Britt to 21 months imprisonment for reentry of a removed alien.

ZAMORA-ESPIRIQUETA was named in a one-count Indictment returned by a grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of North Carolina on August 16, 2017.  ZAMORA-ESPIRIQUETA pled guilty on May 22, 2018 to reentry of a removed alien.  

According to information presented in court, ZAMORA-ESPIRIQUETA was previously deported three (3) times and found in Johnston County, North Carolina, due to his arrest for possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine.  As presented in court, ZAMORA-ESPIRIQUETA had sold cocaine to an individual and a search of a hotel room occupied by ZAMORA-ESPIRIQUETA in Selma, North Carolina, revealed 11 grams of cocaine.  In addition, a search of ZAMORA-ESPIRIQUETA’s residence in Clayton, North Carolina, uncovered methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

The case was investigated by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.