This undated photo provided by the Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sheriff’s Office shows, Andrew J. Pleviak. Pleviak, a former agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was sentenced Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020, to nine months in prison for impersonating an immigration supervisor in a foiled attempt to free a Mexican immigrant from a Kansas jail, authorities said. (Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was sentenced Tuesday to nine months in prison for impersonating an immigration supervisor in a foiled attempt to free a Mexican immigrant from a Kansas jail, authorities said.
Andrew J. Pleviak, 42, of Topeka pleaded guilty in December to falsely claiming to be an officer of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release.
Pleviak identified himself as another man who is an actual ICE agent in an effort on Sept. 3 to get an acquaintance out of the Kingman County jail. He provided a sheriff’s deputy a memorandum on ICE letterhead falsely claiming the inmate was an important confidential informant and saying that ICE would drop the detainer on him.
The man Pleviak tried to sneak out of the county jail, Juan Tapia, was indicted in November on federal charges of using another person’s Social Security number, aggravated identity theft and unlawful possession of a firearm. Tapia is awaiting trial.
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