Federal prosecutors are seeking custody of an airplane belonging to an illegal immigrant after he was caught aboard at the McAllen airport.
Action 4 News has learned that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in McAllen is asking a federal judge to seize an $94,000 dollar airplane belonging to Jorge Aguiniga.
Court records show that the Houston car dealership owner was arrested at McCreery Aviation under illegal immigration charges in July.
Prosecutors allege that the 1978 Beechcraft Model 95-B55 twin-engine plane is now subject to federal forfeiture laws.
A forfeiture lawsuit filed last week shows that Aguiniga first came to the country as an illegal immigrant from Mexico in the late 1970s.
Aguiniga got residency under the U.S. Immigration Reform & Control Act in the late 1980s but was deported after serving three years in prison for a cocaine conviction.
Federal prosecutors allege that Aguiniga was able to come back to United States after lying on immigration documents.
A criminal complaint shows that Aguiniga was deported in 2005 but was caught at the McAllen airport after authorities received a tip that he would be there.
Court records show that U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Hinojosa sentenced Aguiniga two days before Thanksgiving to time served in that case.
Public records show that Aguiniga has been ordered for deportation but ran a successful car dealership in Houston for years before his recent arrest.
Both Aguiniga’s airplane and Texas driver’s license were registered to Jorge’s Cars & Trucks on Harrisburg Boulevard in Houston back in 2004.
Aguiniga’s attorney Gilberto Hinojosa told Action 4 News that his client is now seeking to reunify his family in Mexico and fighting to keep the airplane.
Hinojosa said Aguiniga and his son had flown down to the Rio Grande Valley to watch a soccer game.
The Brownsville-based attorney said the airplane and its pilot only flew Aguiniga within the United States.
“It did not cross the international border,” Hinojosa said. “He was not doing anything illegal in the plane.”
Federal prosecutors allege that Aguiniga lied on a Federal Aviation Administration form used to register the plane in his name by falsely stating he was a resident alien.
Hinojosa told Action 4 News that his client prefers that the penalty, if any, should be a fine or suspension rather than forfeiture of the airplane.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT