Mexican National Sentenced on Immigration Charge

Lynchburg, VIRGINIA – A citizen of Mexico, who on four occasions was removed from the United States only to return later without lawful permission, was sentenced this morning on a federal immigration charge, Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced.

Adolfo Castaneda-Garcia, 45, a native of Mexico, was sentenced today in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Lynchburg to 21 months in federal prison. Castaneda-Garcia previously pled guilty to one count of illegally reentering the United States without obtaining express consent of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to reapply for admission.

According to evidence presented at a previous hearing by Assistant United States Attorney Charlene R. Day, Castaneda-Garcia was first encountered by Immigrations officials at or near Denver, Colorado in February 1996 while serving a state prison sentence for possession of a controlled substance. The defendant was sentenced to four years in prison for this conviction and later removed to Mexico. Over the next decade, Castaneda-Garcia was arrested, incarcerated, removed from the United States and encountered by Border Patrol officers at least four times in Arizona, California and Texas.

On June 17. 2016, officials with the Rockbridge Regional Jail in Lexington, Va., contacted officials with Immigrations and Customs and Enforcement officers and informed them that Castaneda-Garcia was arrested in Buena-Vista on state drug charges.