Three citizens of the Dominican Republic appeared before federal District Magistrate Judge Marcos Lopez in Puerto Rico on Tuesday facing charges for violation of immigration law after entering illegally into the island.
The three defendants are Jesus Mambrux, 26, aka José R. Paulino-Ramírez; Maria Encarnación-Tejada, 40, aka Maria Encarnación- Castillo and/or Margari Nurys Castillo-Pujols; and Oscar Cordones, 27.
At the hearing, the defendants were charged with entering the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers.
Mambrux was also charged with the re-entry of a previously removed alien.
The defendants belonged to a group of 12 aliens that landed December 20 on Mona Island, on board a 22 ft. makeshift vessel or “yola”.
Park Rangers of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources contacted the US Border Patrol, ascribed to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), for assistance and immigration processing.
A CBP helicopter from the Caribbean Air and Marine Branch transported Border Patrol Agents to conduct the appropriate immigration interviews.
The CBP helicopter transported all the migrants from Mona Island to the Ramey Border Patrol Station for further processing.
Border Patrol Agents interviewed the aliens, checked their fingerprints and verified their criminal and immigration history.
Defendants Mambrux, Encarnación and Castillo had previous immigration encounters and were previously removed to the Dominican Republic.
The immigration record for Mambrux revealed that an immigration judge formally removed him in 2007.
The remaining nine aliens were removed to the Dominican Republic.
Mambrux faces a fine or imprisonment for not more than 2 years, or both. The other two defendants face a fine or imprisonment for not more than 6 months, or both.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
In other news, late Monday CBP officers seized 0.70 kilograms (1.54 pounds) of heroin from a United States citizen arriving at the weekend from La Romana in the Dominican Republic.
Ronny Rincon-Pineyro, 27, arrived on Saturday at the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport on board an American Eagle flight, presenting himself for inspection by CBP.
Rincon-Pineyro was referred to secondary inspection, where he was further interviewed by CBP officers.
During the course of the interview by CBP officers, Rincon-Pineyro admitted that he had swallowed narcotics pellets but did not know how many or what they contained.
The defendant was transported to a medical facility where an X-ray was taken by a certified technician who verified the presence of foreign objects in the digestive tract.
Under medical supervision, the defendant expelled 49 pellets of suspected narcotics, which tested positive for heroin.
The custody of the defendant and the seized narcotics was transferred to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for further investigation and presentation of criminal charges.
The estimated street value of the seized heroin is $45,000.
