A 47-year-old Mexican national living illegally in Nacogdoches has been indicted on a federal firearms charge in the Eastern District of Texas, Acting U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs announced.
Antonio Hernandez-Perez was named in an indictment returned this week by a federal grand jury charging him with being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.
According to the indictment, Hernandez-Perez possessed a firearm on January 30, 2025, while unlawfully present in the United States.
The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative of the Department of Justice aimed at combating illegal immigration, dismantling cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and targeting violent crime through combined efforts of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) and Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).
If convicted, Hernandez-Perez faces up to 15 years in federal prison and deportation.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; Homeland Security Investigations; and the Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office are investigating. Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Carter is prosecuting the case.
A federal indictment is not evidence of guilt, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
