CEDAR RAPIDS – An illegal alien deported three times was caught with loaded guns at an Iowa hotel and now must serve 2 years in prison.
Pedro Salazar-Trejo, age 34, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the United States and residing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after a guilty plea on October 4, 2021, to one count of Possession of a Firearm by an Illegal Alien.
In a plea agreement, Salazar-Trejo admitted that he unlawfully possessed two firearms in July 2021 while being illegally present in the United States. Salazar-Trejo had previously been deported three times and did not have permission to reenter the United States. While in the United States illegally, Salazar-Trejo was convicted in Texas of forgery of government documents, a social security card and driver’s license, in 2005, and fleeing the scene of an accident in 2008. Salazar-Trejo was first deported in May 2014 following a conviction in the Southern District of Texas for illegal entry into the United States. He was deported a second time in December 2017 following his arrest during a traffic stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by ICE officials. He was deported a third time in September 2019 following a conviction in the Western District of Texas for Illegal Reentry of a Deported Alien, a felony.
On July 22, 2021, Cedar Rapids Police Officers responded to a local hotel after Salazar-Trejo called them saying someone was going to kill him and had planted a bomb in his hotel room. Inside the hotel room officers saw and seized a 9mm pistol and a semi-automatic rifle with a high-capacity magazine. Both firearms were loaded and both had a round in the chamber. Salazar-Trejo was taken into custody without incident.
Salazar-Trejo was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Salazar-Trejo was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Salazar-Trejo is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel C. Tvedt and investigated by the Cedar Rapids Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations.
