A violent, drug-dealing, once-deported illegal immigrant who was arrested in July at a popular day laborer hangout in Silver Spring was sentenced this week to seven years in prison for re-entering the country illegally, federal prosecutors said.
Since 2003, Miguel Montez-Flores, 36, of Mexico, has been doling out aliases to authorities and dodging federal officials as he was arrested three times for alleged drunken driving around Louisville, Ky. He tried to give Montgomery County police a pseudonym, but officers didn’t buy it, according to a plea agreement.
In July, Montez-Flores was arrested at the 7-Eleven on the corner of University Boulevard East and Piney Branch Road.
In recent weeks, the 7-Eleven has become a focal point for Montgomery County detectives as they investigate the shooting death of a nearby store clerk followed by the carjacking of a Comcast van from the 7-Eleven parking lot where dozens of day laborers gather. The store sits at the nexus of one of the region’s largest Latino communities.
Montez-Flores was arrested after refusing to leave a “no loitering” area when asked to do so by a Montgomery police officer. He then refused to identify himself and tried to fight the officer.
Police said when they finally got Montez-Flores under control and into the cruiser, he kicked the windows, the computer and police radio and eventually knocked out the rear passenger window.
And that wasn’t the first time he became violent with arresting officers.
After being arrested in Kentucky in March 2006 for allegedly driving 104 mph in a 55 mph zone, Montez-Flores threatened to kill a police officer and his family as he repeatedly kicked the officer, according to court documents.
All this after he had been deported in 2000 after serving time for cocaine possession in Hillsborough County, Fla.
Once his seven years are served in federal prison, he will be deported, once again, to Mexico.
The lengthy sentence shows that law enforcement officials will “assure that criminal aliens are prosecuted to the fullest extent allowable by law,” said James Dinkins, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
