A Mexican national will spend 10 years in prison for trafficking drugs in Mississippi.
U.S. District Court Judge Sharion Aycock sentenced Arturo Bonilla, 48, on Tuesday. The suspect was arrested in 2021 after officers with the Tishomingo County Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Highway Patrol conducted a traffic stop and found him to be in possession of methamphetamine.
Agents with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations then began investigating Bonilla’s role in drug distribution and determined he was responsible for trafficking at least six kilograms into Mississippi. Authorities also determined that Bonilla was illegally present in the U.S.
Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have placed an immigration detainer on the defendant to remove him from the U.S. following the conclusion of his federal sentence.
“The defendant in this case, who never should have been in this country to commit these crimes in the first place, imported poison into our community and has now been held to account for that conduct,” U.S. Attorney Scott F. Leary said. “Our law enforcement partners did incredible work on this case and provided the level of cooperation that our citizens should expect.”
After serving the full duration of his prison sentence, Bonilla will spend five years of supervised release in the event that he is not removed from the U.S. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Addison prosecuted the case.