GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- A former Peruvian naval commander was sentenced to 110 days behind bars -- the time he has already served -- as part of the investigation of illegal immigrants working for an aircraft maintenance company at a North Carolina airport.
U.S. District Court Judge N. Carlton Tilley Jr. sentenced Percy A. Vega, 54, on Tuesday for possessing a fraudulent green card.
Vega was among 27 people affiliated with TIMCO, the maintenance company at Piedmont Triad International Airport, arrested on immigration charges in early March, many because their once-legal visas expired.
Vega's lawyer, Walter L. Jones of Greensboro, said his client did not fit that category and should not have been arrested as an illegal immigrant. Vega is married to a Cuban exile and has an application before immigration authorities to change his residency status, Jones said.
''Our position is that Mr. Vega was lawfully in this country at the time of his arrest,'' Jones said.
Jones acknowledged that Vega had a falsified green card but said his client never used it.
Vega, arrested March 8, is a retired military officer known as a friend to U.S. drug agents fighting traffickers in cocaine and other narcotics in Peru's Upper Huallaga Valley.
His family said they fled Peru after drug traffickers threatened his life in the early 1990s.
Vega initially was charged also with possessing a false Social Security card and with not having qualifications to test for a federal aircraft-repair license that he received. Those charges were dropped several months ago in a plea bargain.
The arrests of TIMCO-affiliated workers at PTI were part of Operation Tarmac, a nationwide initiative by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to keep illegal immigrants out of the aviation industry.
About half those arrested also faced criminal charges involving false documents, fraud and other misdeeds. Most pleaded guilty as Vega did; three were sentenced last week to terms ranging from time served to an additional six weeks in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold L. Husser said the government was satisfied with the sentence of time served for Vega, but he said the government viewed it as a serious case involving aviation safety and national security.
Vega will be transferred to immigration authorities, who will hold him for a deportation hearing. His immigration lawyer, Jeremy McKinney of Greensboro, said he plans to file a petition asking immigration authorities to free Vega on bond while he awaits a final hearing.
