Despite the Trump administration’s campaign to locate and deport illegal immigrants, Oklahoma is still a destination for undocumented aliens.
Dozens of migrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and even Bolivia, have been arrested in the Sooner State and charged with various crimes in one of Oklahoma’s three federal district courts. Many of those individuals were accused solely of unlawful reentry, but several have been accused or convicted of engaging in criminal conduct while in the U.S. illegally or were convicted of crimes previously.
Most of them have been deported at least once, and several have been removed from the U.S. multiple times.
Many of the migrants have two or more aliases.
A recent example is Deybe Antonio Moreno Escobar, 41, a Hispanic male who has at least four aliases. He is facing three federal drug charges and will be prosecuted in Oklahoma City’s Western District federal court for entering the United States without permission — 10 times: in 2008, in 2010, twice in 2012, five times in 2014, and this year.
Escobar is one of five Hispanics arrested by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (OBNDD) and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in a narcotics investigation that netted almost 169 pounds of methamphetamine during a traffic stop Feb. 20 on Interstate 40 west of Yukon, near Calumet.
Pedro Ramirez Covarrubias, 53, is a Mexican national who was living in Baron, a tiny community in Adair County, while working for his cousin’s roofing and drywall company. Based on a tip to Homeland Security Investigations, Covarrubias was arrested last November for being in this country illegally; he was removed from the U.S. in 2021.
Subsequently it was discovered that he was convicted in 2015 of first-degree murder in Harris County, Texas, and was deported to Mexico after serving less than 10 years of the sentence, court records indicate.
Covarrubias was sentenced Wednesday in Oklahoma’s Eastern District federal court at Muskogee to 37 months in federal prison for unlawful reentry.
Francisco Huertas-Morales, 47, a Guatemalan who has two aliases and a third-grade education, pleaded guilty Jan. 16 to illegal reentry to the United States.
Previously he was convicted in Nebraska of attempted sexual assault of a minor, served a year in prison, and was deported back to Guatemala in 2005. He was found in Los Angeles, California, in 2009.
And he was arrested in Oklahoma last November by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a vehicle stop.
Huertas-Morales was placed in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service for deportation yet again.
Daniel Ceron-Ceron, 38, a Mexican national, was sentenced in December to 37 months in federal prison for being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm during a domestic assault. During an argument with a woman at an Edmond residence, Ceron-Ceron pointed a gun at her head and stuck it in her mouth.
He was arrested by Edmond police after a standoff. Ceron-Ceron was previously removed from the U.S. to Mexico in 2020.
Carjacker/kidnapper given 10 years
Eduardo Javier Ordonez- Godoy, 36, used a firearm on Christmas Eve 2024 to force a woman in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Haltom City, Texas, into the back seat of her vehicle. He drove to a nearby bank and ordered her to withdraw cash from an ATM.
After forcing the victim back into her vehicle, he threatened to use her as a prostitute and sell her organs.
Soon after, he tied the woman to a tree, using her shoelaces, and fled in her vehicle. She freed herself and reported the incident to law enforcement officers.
Later that day the stolen vehicle was involved in a hit-andrun collision in North Richland Hills, Texas.
On Christmas Day 2024, a police officer located the stolen vehicle in Oklahoma City and found Ordonez-Godoy asleep inside.
Ordonez-Godoy pleaded guilty and was sentenced in February 2026 to 10 years in federal prison, and still faces state charges in Texas for aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon. He was previously deported to Honduras in 2019.
Bolivian wanted by INTERPOL awaits trial for child porn
A Bolivian national residing illegally in Tulsa and wanted by INTERPOL was charged in February with receiving, possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material. Vismar Erick Atahuichi Alanoca, 39, is accused of receipt and distribution of child pornography, and possession of or access with intent to view child pornography.
Acting on a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that photographs consistent with child sexual abuse material were uploaded and shared by a Facebook user, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant. They discovered that Alanoca had child sexual abuse material. It is further alleged that Alanoca requested child sexual abuse material from a Facebook user.
During the investigation of Alanoca, agents discovered that he is listed as a fugitive wanted by a foreign country that’s not mentioned in court records. The risk factors listed show that Alanoca has violent tendencies, is an escape risk, a sexually violent predator, and cautioned that he is a sex offender, specifically involving minors.
He remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending trial Nov. 2 in Tulsa’s Northern District federal court.
Two other Hispanics also confessed to child sex crimes.
Gustavo Gordillo, 42, from Guatemala, was sentenced in January to 24 years in federal prison for admitting he produced child pornography while living in Oklahoma City. He was in the U.S. on an expired temporary visa.
Brandon Leal Castro, 34, from Mexico, pleaded guilty to receipt of material involving the sexual exploitation of a minor and was sentenced in December to eight years in federal prison.
Gunplay gets Mexican busted
Edwin Soto, 28, a Mexican national in the U.S. without permission, was arrested in Tulsa last August after he shot at a neighbor’s dog because it defecated in his yard.
When police executed a search warrant at his residence they found two shotguns, a .25-caliber pistol, and a .450-caliber rifle.
In 2020, Soto admitted in Tulsa County District Court that he fired a weapon into a neighbor’s house; he received a two-year suspended sentence on that felony charge.
Soto was sentenced April 30 in Tulsa’s federal court to more than four years in prison for being in the U.S. unlawfully and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
2 nabbed for making false IDs, SS cards
A Mexican national was sentenced to prison in January, and her co-defendant was sentenced in December, for making and selling thousands of counterfeit identifications to clients throughout the United States.
Karina Garcia-Salazar, 47, was sentenced to 60 months in prison for conspiracy to transfer identification documents and conspiracy to possess with intent to use or transfer five or more documents.
Her co-defendant, Jorge Augusto Prieto-Gamboa, 41, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for conspiracy to possess five or more documents with intent to transfer.
From August 2020 through their arrest in February 2025, Garcia- Salazar and Prieto- Gamboa worked together to create thousands of fake immigration documents.
Court records show the defendants sold the fake documents in several controlled buys orchestrated by agents.
During those transactions, agents confirmed that Garcia-Salazar and Prieto-Gamboa were working together to sell identification cards and Social Security cards.
A search warrant was served on their home in Tulsa. Agents found at least 67 fake completed documents and seized several electronic devices on which, after further search, agents found more than 2,000 different identification documents, including Social Security cards, lawful permanent resident cards, state driver’s licenses and ID cards, foreign ID cards, and passports.
Bank records and surveillance obtained by agents show that Garcia- Salazar used a fake Mexican passport, rather than her permanent resident card, to open a local checking account.
Cash deposits made by both defendants and peer-to-peer transactions showed that the couple charged $120 to $150 for fake cards. The fake passport used by Garcia-Salazar and more than $32,000 in cash were also found during the search warrant.
Court records show that Prieto-Gamboa entered the United States without permission in 2002.
Drug trafficking
Jose Carlos Morales- Gutierrez, 31, a Mexican national in the U.S. without authorization and no valid driver’s license, was operating a tractor-trailer rig when he was stopped March 11 in Custer County by an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper. A K9 dog detected narcotics in the trailer, and a search uncovered a duffel bag containing more than 20 pounds of methamphetamine.
Two Mexican nationals — Ventura Rivera Arteaga, 41, and Ruben Amador Meza Medina, 21 — were sentenced in April to almost four years in federal prison for working with a drug cartel to package and distribute fentanyl throughout Tulsa. Rivera Arteaga was previously deported in 2024.
Fredis Amilcar Guiza Hernandez, 35, a Honduran national, was sentenced to three years in prison for one count of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
According to investigators, Sequoyah County sheriff’s deputies conducting a routine traffic stop on Interstate 40 arrested Guiza Hernandez after finding him in possession of four kilograms of cocaine.
Jose Trinidad Perez Fraire, 38, of Mexico, was sentenced in February to serve eight years and nine months in federal prison after admitting he conspired to distribute cocaine and was an illegal alien in possession of ammunition.
Evidence presented in court showed that the DEA obtained information in May 2025 that Fraire was involved in cocaine distribution in Oklahoma City. Law enforcement officers served a search warrant at his residence and found approximately three kilograms of cocaine, $70,453 in cash, suspected drug ledgers, and ammunition.