Arrests net one federal gun charge

BY MICHELLE BRADFORD

Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007

Only one of the 41 people arrested this month in a roundup of illegal aliens with gang ties in Northwest Arkansas has been charged with a federal crime.

Angel Garcia-Rodriguez is charged in U. S. District Court with being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.

Garcia-Rodriguez was arrested during the raids, but he’s not in a gang, court documents state. He was arrested Sept. 9 when U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents went to his Springdale home looking for someone else.

Agents found a handgun in Garcia-Rodriguez’s closet, documents state. He told them the gun was for personal protection.

He appeared Thursday in U. S. District Court in Fayetteville. Magistrate James Marschewski ordered him held without bond.

Immigration agents, working with local police, arrested 41 illegal aliens in Washington and Benton counties. The operation, called a “surge,â€