Source: Office of United States Attorneys
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio announced today new immigration charges or convictions in four cases in the District.
On Monday, task force agents arrested Sergio Diego-Sevilla, 35, and charged him with being an illegal reentrant into the United States. Diego-Sevilla is a Mexican national with no legal status in the United States. He has been apprehended in Arizona in the past and deported to Mexico.
According to court documents, on Jan. 23, investigators with the Licking County Sheriff’s Office received information from Customs and Border Patrol located in Southern Arizona that a Toyota Highlander with an Arizona license plate was allegedly involved in human smuggling.
Sheriff’s deputies stopped the vehicle in Licking County and discovered Adalberto Calixto Tolentino, 21, was transporting four individuals in the vehicle, including Diego-Sevilla. Investigators also discovered an envelope with $8,000 cash in the car. When interviewed by law enforcement, one passenger said he had paid $10,000 to be helped crossing the border of Mexico into the United States. He was picked up in the desert in Arizona and eventually transported by Tolentino. These related cases are being prosecuted in Columbus.
On Tuesday, in Cincinnati, Edgar Palomares-Ventura, 38, pleaded guilty to illegally reentering the United States. Palomares-Ventura is a citizen of Mexico and had been previously deported from the United States in 2022 from Texas. In February 2025, agents discovered the defendant in West Chester.
Palomares-Ventura has previous convictions in the United States, including trafficking marijuana in Hamilton County, and federal convictions in Ohio and Kentucky for visa, permit and passport fraud, as well as aggravated identity theft.
On Wednesday, another defendant pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati to illegally reentering the United States. Brayan Castaneda-Juarez, 32, also admitted to illegally possessing a firearm. Illegal aliens are prohibited from possessing firearms. The defendant forfeited a 9mm pistol.
Castaneda-Juarez is a Mexican national with no legal status in the United States. He had been previously removed from the country from a Port of Entry in Texas.
In December, loss prevention employees at Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati stopped the defendant because he was attempting to shoplift. Fairfield police officers were dispatched to the scene and discovered the 9mm pistol in a bag that Castaneda-Juarez was carrying. He was later arrested by ICE officers.
Today, new charges and a plea document were filed in the case against Ismael Rodriguez-Mojica, 47, a national of El Salvador with no legal status in the United States. A bill of information charges Rodriguez-Mojica with illegally reentering the United States. The defendant had been deported from the United States three times before, including once after being booked into the Franklin County Jail. In his current case, ICE officers encountered Rodriguez-Mojica in Columbus in January 2025. He was originally charged by a criminal complaint.
Illegally reentering the United States is a federal crime punishable by up to two years in prison. If the offender has a prior felony conviction (or multiple prior misdemeanor convictions of certain types), the penalty is increased to 10 years in prison, and if the offender has been previously convicted of an aggravated felony, the defendant faces up to 20 years in prison.
Kelly A. Norris, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jared Murphey, acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Detroit; and Robert Lynch, Field Office Director, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Detroit Field Office; announced the charges. Criminal Chief Christy L. Muncy, Deputy Criminal Chief Brian J. Martinez, and Assistant United States Attorneys Tyler J. Aagard and Matthew C. Singer are representing the United States in these cases.
Charging documents merely contain allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
These cases are being prosecuted as part of the Southern District of Ohio Immigration Enforcement Task Force, which dedicates agents, attorneys and other staff to investigating and prosecuting immigration violations.
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