Cruise ships moored in Juneau on May 21. (Bill Roth / ADN)

A Philippine national who impersonated a U.S. citizen to board an Alaska-bound cruise ship where he used another person’s stolen credit card was sentenced Wednesday to more than four years in federal prison.

The 53-month sentence from U.S. District Court Senior Judge Timothy Burgess came after 38-year-old Enrico Ronquillo pleaded guilty in February to one count of impersonating a U.S. citizen and one count of aggravated identity theft, court records show. The sentence was 11 months longer than prosecutors recommended, according to a June 9 sentencing memorandum signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Schmidt.

Ronquillo, a lawful permanent resident from the Philippines, used stolen documents and counterfeit identification to board the Discovery Princess cruise ship in Seattle in May 2025, according to the memorandum.

He was arrested when the ship docked in Juneau days after he boarded, prosecutors said.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers boarded the Discovery Princess in Juneau and searched Ronquillo’s backpack, finding two birth certificates and the driver’s license of a California identity theft victim, according to the memorandum. Officers also found “a large amount of cash” in the backpack and in Ronquillo’s pockets, the document said.

KTOO reported last year that Ronquillo used a stolen credit card to withdraw about $20,000 from the vessel’s casino. Ronquillo told investigators that he had participated in similar fraud schemes on cruise ships before and planned to split the cash with a person who was part of the scheme in Seattle, according to KTOO’s reporting.

Ronquillo has a “lengthy and significant” history of being involved in financial and identity theft crimes, prosecutors said, and was likely connected to a network of people involved in that activity.

In June 2025, a federal grand jury indicted Ronquillo on one count of false impersonation of a citizen of the U.S., one count of making and using a false document, and two counts of aggravated identity theft. He originally pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, according to court records.

His attorney, federal public defender Ben Muse, said in a June 11 sentencing memorandum that Ronquillo’s actions had been driven by a methamphetamine addiction.

But Ronquillo had been sober and took responsibility for his actions after he was arrested, which should be “grounds for cautious optimism regarding his rehabilitative prospects,” Muse wrote. He asked for a 34-month sentence, according to the memorandum.

Ronquillo, who has a partner and two children who are all U.S. citizens, will probably be deported, Muse said.

Prosecutors said in a Thursday statement that Ronquillo would be “subject to deportation proceedings” but didn’t provide any other details.

Ronquillo was also ordered to pay more than $25,200 in restitution and spend one year on supervised release when his prison sentence concludes, according to court records.