LAS VEGAS, Nev. (KOLO) - A man who had been deported from the United States five times has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being arrested in Las Vegas.

Jose Alberto Santacruz-Benitez, a Mexican national, will serve three years of parole after being released.

Benitez was found to be living in the United States illegally in September of 2022. The DOJ says he was deported in October 2009, June 5, 2014, June 30, 2014, Sept. 2017 and Nov. 2021.

Prior to his first deportation, Benitez was convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping against two men they believed had stolen drugs from them. The DOJ says they tortured their victims for hours and threatened to kill them and their families.

He has also been convicted in two separate incidents of felony possession of a controlled subst

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