The Venezuelan migrant influencer who has flashed wads of $100 bills and bragged about milking US welfare is now moaning that he can’t afford an attorney.
Leonel Moreno, 27, was arrested on March 29 in Columbus, Ohio, after months of taunting Americans on TikTok.
Despite bragging about all the money has made from government welfare programs and begging on the streets, he is suddenly short of cash and can’t come up with the money to pay for an attorney, according to The New York Post.
Moreno is currently being held in federal custody at the Geauga County Jail in Ohio after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) found him and arrested him for violating his terms of probation, which he was put on illegally entering the United States.
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‘He’s having financial difficulties finding an attorney for his case,’ an ICE source told The Post.
Moreno, who gave squatting tips on TikTok, released a 30-minute-long video on from prison in which he whined about how he is being treated in prison and claimed he is ‘respectful to people’.
‘I came here to the United States because of persecution in my country…But they’re doing the same thing to me in the United States– persecuting me,’ Moreno said.
‘It’s all misinformation in the media about me. They’re defaming me, They’re misrepresenting me in the news… I am a good father, a good son, a good person, humble, respectful to people who respect me.’
As he spoke in Spanish and hid his face from the camera, Moreno added: ‘I miss my entire life – I miss my freedom!’
Moreno’s long-awaited arrest came almost two years after he and his wife, Vernonia Torres, illegally crossed into the US through the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas in April 2022.
Since he was placed in federal prison, Torres has complained that she doesn’t know where her husband was taken after being barred from visiting him.
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In the recent video of Moreno, he was seen among other prisoners dressed in blue-striped jumpsuits.
During the recording, five inmates looked in his direction and shouted at him as he said: ‘What is happening?’
‘I am afraid they’re going to kill me. They’re coming for my life – anyone!’
He said he has been in contact with his wife since being detained, and told the Post to contact her so she could ‘charge’ the outlet for a ‘good interview’ with him.
Moreno could also face firearm charges after recent video of him was discovered as he posed with a firearm on his popular Instagram account.
The video has since been flagged to Immigration and Customs Enforcement by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Sources told the Post the charges likely relate to violations of the Gun Control Act which prevents parolees from possessing, shipping, transporting or receiving firearms or ammunition.
Any possible further charges would ‘escalate’ the case against Moreno, former ICE field office director John Fabbricatore told the Post.
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‘This should be a warning to any illegal aliens that possessing a firearm unlawfully will result in criminal charges and hopefully lead to a conviction,’ Fabbricatore explained.
In the post, Moreno brandished a large firearm in a gun store and asking his followers which weapon they like best.
‘Thank God I already have my license,’ he said in one post.
He first sparked chaos when he started sharing tips on how to invade vacant homes and live off of the US government on his TikTok account @leitooficial_25, where he had over half a million followers before the account was suspended.
In one of his now-viral videos, he instructed his followers how to ‘invade’ American homes and invoke squatter’s rights, claiming that under US law, ‘if a house is not inhabited, we can seize it.’
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Other posts showed him waving fistfuls of cash, as he claimed to have benefitted from government programs.
The original account helped officials track Moreno down after he went missing while on the Alternatives to Detention program.
* Original Article:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13355999/amp/Leonel-Moreno-migrant-influencer-moans-attorney-fees.html?ito=smartnews