Police: Man wanted for armed robbery is illegal immigrant

11:22 PM EDT on Monday, September 8, 2008

By MICHELLE BOUDIN / NewsChannel 36



CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Police say he shouldn't be in the country in the first place, and yet, detectives are looking for him on armed robbery charges.

He's the violent offender they need your help in finding.

The only picture cops have of him is a fuzzy black and white one that immigration customs and enforcement agents gave them. They're all trying to find 20-year-old Onelio Enrique Lopez Navarro.


Onelio Enrique Lopez Navarro

Sgt. Steve Winterhalter with VCAT, the Violent Criminal Apprehension Team said, "He was scheduled to be deported from the country and failed to appear for that showing as well."

Police say while here in Charlotte illegally, Navarro held up a Mexican convenience store.

"Right now we've exhausted all of our leads that we have in this case," Winterhalter said.

But they believe the 20-year-old is still here in the Queen City, saying he has friends and relatives living in a south Charlotte apartment complex. Tracking him though, they say, is tough.

"Individuals who are here illegally or who are here under a different name rarely have things in their name or have ID or residences we can link, it makes it that much more difficult in trying to track them down," Winterhalter said.

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