The Venezuelan migrant influencer, who has flashed stacks of $100 bills and bragged about milking American prosperity, now moans that he can’t afford a lawyer.
Leonel Moreno, 27, was arrested in Columbus, Ohio, on March 29 after months of mocking Americans on TikTok.
Despite bragging about all the money he has made from government welfare programs and having to beg on the streets, he suddenly finds himself short of cash and cannot afford to pay a lawyer . 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) located and arrested him for violating the terms of his probation, which he was imposed when he illegally entered the United States.
The immigration judge overseeing Moreno’s case has postponed the hearings while Moreno looks for the money to pay for legal representation.
Leonel Moreno, 27 (pictured), moans that he can’t afford a lawyer, despite flashing stacks of $100 bills and bragging about squatting and begging
He first caused chaos when he started sharing tips on how to sneak into vacant houses and live off the US government on his TikTok account.
Reports showed him waving fistfuls of cash and claiming to have benefited from government programs
Moreno was arrested on March 29, about two years after he and his wife Vernonia Torres (pictured) illegally crossed into the US through the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas, in April 2022.
“He is having financial difficulties finding an attorney for his case,” an ICE source told The Post.
Moreno, who gave cracking tips on TikTok, released a 30-minute video from prison in which he whined about how he is treated in prison and claimed he is “respectful of people.”
“I came here to the United States because of persecution in my country… But in the United States they do the same to me: they persecute me,” Moreno said.
‘It’s all misinformation in the media about me. They slander me, they misrepresent me in the news… I am a good father, a good son, a good person, humble, respectful to people who respect me.”
Speaking in Spanish and hiding his face from the camera, Moreno added: “I miss my whole life – I miss my freedom!”
Moreno’s long-awaited arrest came nearly two years after he and his wife, Vernonia Torres, illegally crossed into the U.S. through the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas, in April 2022.
Since being placed in federal prison, Torres has complained that she does not know where her husband was taken after being denied visits.
“We don’t know where they took him and I can’t see him,” she told the Post. “I can’t give you more information because I don’t know much.”
In Moreno’s recent video, he was seen among other inmates wearing blue-striped jumpsuits.
During the recording, five inmates looked in his direction and shouted at him as he said, “What’s going on?”
‘I’m afraid they’re going to kill me. They’re coming for my life, whoever!’
He said he has been in contact with his wife since his arrest and told the Post he needed to contact her so she could “charge” the newspaper for a “good interview” with him.
Moreno could also face firearms charges after a recent video of him posing with a gun was discovered on his popular Instagram account.
The video has since been flagged by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement AlcoholTobacco, firearms and explosives.
Moreno could also face firearms charges after a recent video of him posing with a gun was discovered on his popular Instagram account
Sources told the Post that the charges are likely related to violations of the law Arms control Law that prevents parolees from possessing, shipping, transporting, or receiving firearms or ammunition.
Any further charges would “escalate” the case against Moreno, former ICE field office director John Fabbricatore told the Post.
‘Costs below [Gun Control Act section] 922.g are a serious matter and could have significant legal consequences for Moreno.
“This should be a warning to all illegal aliens that the unlawful possession of a firearm will lead to criminal charges and hopefully a conviction,” Fabbricatore explained.
In the post, Moreno brandished a large firearm in a gun shop and asked his followers which gun they liked best.
“Thank God I already have my driver’s license,” he said in a post.
He first caused chaos when he started sharing tips on how to raid vacant houses and make a living off the US government on his TikTok account @leitooficial_25, where he had more than half a million followers before the account was suspended.
In one of his now viral videos he talks instructed his followers how to do this ‘Invading’ US homes and invoking squatters’ rights, claiming that under US law ‘if a house is unoccupied, we can seize it’.
Some of his other videos show him begging for money on the street with his daughter
In some of his other videos, he claimed he was begging for money on the street with his daughter.
In other posts, he waved fistfuls of cash as he claimed to have benefited from government programs.
The original story helped officials track down Moreno after he went missing during the Alternatives to Detention program.