‘Serious Criminal Histories’: ICE Lands Major Busts Across Sanctuary Cities In Single-Day Raid

🛂Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday lauded the arrests of five different illegal migrants with “serious” criminal backgrounds across Maryland in a single-day raid.

Deportation officers on Oct. 18 apprehended several criminal aliens living unlawfully in the United States and have rap sheets that include cartel association, drug distribution, sexual assault and other crimes, ICE confirmed in a press release. The announcement follows other major crackdowns the agency has made in the state, which is home to a slate of jurisdictions that prohibit cooperation with federal 🛂Immigration authorities.

“This targeted operation resulted in the arrest of five noncitizens with serious criminal histories including fentanyl distribution, gang activity, drug cartel association, assault, and sexual assault,” Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Baltimore Field Office Director Matthew Elliston said of the raid. “ERO Baltimore will not tolerate these egregious noncitizen offenders victimizing our Maryland communities.”

Among those apprehended included Romeo Almengor Oxlaj-Lopez, a 24-year-old Guatemalan national and documented gang member who was convicted by the Montgomery County Circuit Court for second-degree assault, Denis Flores-Alvardo, a 38-year-old Honduran arrested by the Howard County Police Department for DUI and driving with a handgun and Noe Antonio Machado-Medrano, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national convicted of intent to distribute fentanyl, according to ICE.

Deportation officers also apprehended Jose Edgar Rivas-Arevalo, a 41-year-old previously deported Salvadoran national who was later convicted of second-degree assault by the District Court of Baltimore County and Justin Jeremiah Johnson, an 18-year-old Trinidadian national who legally entered the U.S., but violated the terms of his admission and was convicted of robbery by the Baltimore City Circuit Court, according to ICE.