A Dominican woman previously convicted of dealing on deadly opioids wept when was arrested last week by US Immigration officials again
Virginia Basora-Gonzalez, 36, was taken into custody in Philadelphia during a joint operation undertaken by agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the US Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
ICE issued Basora-Gonzalez, who was first deported more than four years ago, a notice of intent to reinstate a final order of removal on March 12.
On that same day, the agency reportedly obtained an arrest warrant and a criminal complaint from a US magistrate judge before turning her over to the US Marshals.
She will be remaining in federal custody pending charges for reentry after deportation in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Basora-Gonzalez's first encounter with law enforcement agent came in June 2019, when the Drug Enforcement Administration charged her with attempted possession with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl.
Court records show two other men were charged with the same crime along with her, with one of them also later being convicted of possession with the intent to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin.
On March 12, 2020, Basora-Gonzalez pleaded guilty to the fentanyl charges and was sentenced to 12 months in prison and four years of supervised release.
Before she could serve out her full sentence, ICE lodged an immigration detainer and deported her back to the Dominican Republic on October 6, 2020.
It's unclear when she returned to the United States, but according to an affidavit filed with the court, a confidential source let ICE know she was back in the country on March 7, 2025.
ICE deportation officer Alec Brown said this source told him that Basora-Gonzalez worked as a cook at La Tierra Del Caribe Restaurant in North Philadelphia and arrived there at around 8am every day.
ICE agents approached her after confirming she matched the physical description provided by the source, according to the court affidavit. They then arrested her and compared her fingerprints to the ones on file for her in the FBI database, and
they matched.
