Honduran Man Illegally in U.S. Pleads Guilty to Gun Possession

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Marvin Enrique Pena-Portillo, 38, a Honduran national unlawfully residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty today before United States District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg to possession of a firearm by a felon.

The defendant was arrested on a criminal complaint and warrant in April of this year and charged by information in June.

As detailed in court filings and admitted to by the defendant, on April 15, 2025, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents arrested the defendant for immigration violations, Pena-Portillo had a loaded 9mm semiautomatic pistol in his waistband.

In August of 2024, in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Pena-Portillo had pleaded guilty to carrying an illegal firearm in public and was sentenced to two years of probation for that offense.

Pena-Portillo is scheduled to be sentenced on October 22.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).

The case was investigated by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations and the ATF and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert Eckert.