INDIANAPOLIS -- The owner of a west side business is now facing a federal firearms charge and deportation proceedings after homeland security investigators determined earlier this month that he’d been in the country illegally for more than a decade.
According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in federal court, the Indianapolis Homeland Security Investigations office received a tip in September that the owner of J.R. Audio and Parts, located at 6250 W. 38th Street, was employing illegal aliens at that location.
Homeland security officers said the business owner, Jose Raul Irene-Suarez, did not have any of the required employment eligibility paperwork for his employees, and was unaware he needed it.
During the course of the investigation, officers learned Irene-Suarez had previously been arrested in New Mexico in August 2004 after entering the country illegally.
According to the complaint, Irene-Suarez told investigators he had reentered the United States a month later, and had been in the country illegally since then.
While taking Irene-Suarez into custody on June 13, officers also learned that he was illegally in possession of a .45-caliber handgun. Irene-Suarez voluntarily turned the weapon over to federal authorities and was cooperative throughout the investigation, officers noted.
A review of Marion County court records turned up no significant criminal history for Irene-Suarez. Information kept by the Secretary of State’s Office shows Irene-Suarez had operated J.R. Audio and Parts since its incorporation in December 2016.
If found guilty on the federal firearms charge, Irene-Suarez faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, along with deportation.
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