A Honduran national residing illegally in Philadelphia has pleaded guilty to firearm possession, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Marvin Enrique Pena-Portillo, 38, admitted to having a loaded 9mm semiautomatic pistol when federal agents arrested him on immigration charges earlier this year. The Department of Justice reports that Pena-Portillo was first arrested in April and charged in June, after initially being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents.
According to court records, Pena-Portillo's gun possession was a violation due his prior conviction. Back in August 2024, he had pleaded guilty in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas to carrying an illegal firearm and was on a two-year probation sentence when taken into custody this year. The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced for his most recent offense on October 22, as noted by the Justice Department.
The guilty plea is a part of Operation Take Back America, an initiative designed to repel the so-called invasion of illegal immigration and dismantle cartels and transnational criminal organizations. The Department of Justice boasts that this operation unites efforts from its Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) to protect communities from violent crime.
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations alongside ATF were the investigating bodies in Pena-Portillo's case, with Assistant United States Attorney Robert Eckert leading the prosecution.
