U.S. Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Henry Villanueva, 19, formerly of Silver Spring, to 18 months imprisonment for reentering the United States illegally after previously being deported.
Though the federal guidelines provided for a lesser sentence, the Court found that the defendant’s membership in the violent street gang “La Mara Salvatrucha” also known as “MS-13″ warranted a longer period of incarceration in federal prison.
Villanueva, known by the gang name “Snooper,” had been previously deported in April 2004 but illegally returned, according to his own admission, a few months prior to May 2005.
In the time since his first deportation, Judge Chasanow found, Villanueva obtained new tattoos signifying his membership in MS-13 and continued to associate with MS-13, a gang that the Court stated was terrorizing the community.
In order to promote respect for the law and to deter other members of the gang from entering the United States illegally, Judge Chasanow sentenced Villanueva to a lengthy prison sentence in order to send a message that he was not to return to the United States and that his continued association with MS-13 would not be condoned.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said, “All tools available to federal law enforcement will be used to prosecute MS-13 gang members and remove them from the streets.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Prince George’s County Police Department investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sandra Wilkinson and James Trusty prosecuted the case.