Illegal Alien in Fla. Drug Bust Deported 3 Times, Easily Reentered U.S.

A startling drug trafficking case out of south Florida is especially disturbing because the illegal immigrant caught with more than half a million dollars in crystal methamphetamine had been deported three times in three months shortly before the drug bust. A few months after the third deportation, the Mexican national returned to the United States with a partner and a vehicle stuffed with thousands of grams of pure crystal meth. The drugs have a street value of about $560,000, according to estimates issued by federal authorities.

The thrice deported illegal immigrant, Saul Bustos Bustos, and his partner in crime, fellow Mexican Irepan Juanchi Salgado, got arrested when they tried to sell five kilograms of crystal meth to undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents in Miami. The exchange occurred in November and this week both men pled guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute drugs. “During the transaction, the defendants, who possessed a total of 3,717 grams of 98% pure crystal methamphetamine, worked together to transfer the drugs from their vehicle to the undercover officer,” according to a statement from the Department of Justice. “Bustos Bustos also pled guilty to illegal reentry after removal, after reentering the United States subsequent to removal on April 13, 2017, July 6, 2017, and July 19, 2017.”

It’s not clear how or where Bustos Bustos entered the country after getting deported, but court documents reveal he drove from Atlanta with the drugs as part of an operation based in Georgia and New York. On November 28, the two Mexican men drove to a restaurant in the Miami Dade County city of Hialeah to make the sale. The customer, an undercover DEA agent, followed the drug dealers to a warehouse to complete the transfer and the Mexican men got arrested. Bustos Bustos is scheduled to be sentenced on March 29 and faces life in prison. Salgado’s sentencing date has not been set, but he also faces a lengthy jail sentence for the narcotics conviction. Authorities say his brother, Luciano Salgado, is a renowned meth dealer.

Previously deported illegal immigrants have reentered the U.S. to commit a multitude of atrocious crimes over the years, but this one sticks out because President Donald Trump vowed to tighten border security and the violations occurred after he took office. Under the famously lax Obama rules, this type of thing was par for the course. In fact, the former president’s own uncle, Onyango Obama, an illegal immigrant from Kenya, reentered the U.S. and even got a driver’s license after getting deported. Uncle Onyango lost the license for driving drunk and was somehow able to obtain a special “hardship license” from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles even though he wasn’t even supposed to be in the United States and had been removed.

Just a few months ago a previously deported gang member was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping in the northern Colorado city of Ft. Collins. The illegal alien from El Salvador, Angel Ramos, was deported from Texas to El Salvador last year after getting arrested for domestic violence. Somehow, he reentered the U.S. and tried to kill a woman by stabbing her repeatedly with a screw driver then running her over with his car before trying to stuff her in the trunk. Ramos is a confirmed member of the violent street gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and is wanted for homicide in his native El Salvador, according to information provided to the media by the U.S. Marshals Service. In November the 36-year-old was charged with attempted murder, assault, menacing with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, domestic violence and criminal impersonation.

Back in 2014 a Judicial Watch investigation uncovered that a twice deported illegal immigrant was a key figure in a sophisticated narco-terror ring. The Mexican national, Hector Pedroza Huerta, plotted a Chicago truck bombing with two of the FBI’s “most wanted” terrorists and was deeply involved in smuggling drugs and weapons. The narco-terror ring that Huerta helped operate after being deported two times from the U.S. runs from El Paso to Chicago to New York. Though he was an illegal alien with a substantial criminal record and deportation history, Huerta lived in El Paso and planned several bomb plots targeting oil refineries in Houston and the Fort Worth Stockyards. He is also alleged to have smuggled explosives and weapons from the Fort Bliss range and exercise areas in concert with corrupt US Army soldiers and government contractors with gate passes at the El Paso base.