Thread: Feds Bust 25 Illegal Alien Sexual Predators in Los Angeles

Feds Bust 25 Illegal Alien Sexual Predators in Los Angeles
By Jim Kouri CPP (08/26/2006)

A Mexican national who attempted to kidnap a seven-year-old girl from a local Laundromat is one of 25 persons arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles during the past three days as part of a joint enforcement effort with the United States Attorney's Office targeting foreign nationals with prior convictions for sex offenses, many of them involving children.

Four of the foreign nationals taken into custody during this week's operation have been deported from the United States previously. The group includes two Salvadorans, a Honduran, and a Mexican national. The defendants are being prosecuted by the US Attorney's newly created Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section for reentering the United States after deportation, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Earlier this week, the four were ordered detained without bond. A fifth man, a Salvadoran national convicted of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14, also faces criminal charges, but he remains at large.

The sex offenders being prosecuted for felony reentry include Jose Angel Pakas-Murcia, 46, a Honduran national who was deported in 1995 after serving time for sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl in Florida. ICE agents arrested Pakas-Murcia Tuesday at the local car dealership where he worked as a manager in the parts department.

The remaining 21 sex offenders -- including 17 Mexican nationals, three Salvadorans, and a Filipino - are being detained by ICE and will be placed in administrative immigration proceedings. Of the 21, 14 are legal permanent residents whose criminal convictions make them subject to deportation. The remaining seven entered the country illegally.

The arrests are the latest local enforcement action carried out as part of Operation Predator, an ongoing ICE initiative to identify, investigate, arrest and, in the case of foreign nationals, deport those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, and Internet pornographers.

The foreign nationals arrested on administrative immigration violations include Gabino Chavez-Rosales, a 43-year-old Mexican national who was convicted in California state court of lewd acts with a minor. The charges stem from an incident where the Glendale resident tried to kidnap a young girl who was playing in a Laundromat parking lot. Also arrested on immigration violations was Jose Luis Rodriguez-Lucatero, 41, who entered the United States illegally from Mexico and was convicted for the attempted rape of a 15-year-old girl.

"These pedophiles pose a serious threat to the well-being of our children, our families, and our communities," said Robert Schoch, special agent-in-charge for the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles. "We will continue to work closely with the United States Attorney's Office and our other law enforcement partners to target those who prey on the children of this community. In the case of foreign nationals who commit predatory offenses, we cannot only take them off of the streets, but we can seek to have them sent out of the country."

Meanwhile, ICE agents are continuing to search for the fifth criminal suspect sought in the operation, Alejandro Rodriguez Villegas, 50, of Los Angeles. The Salvadoran, who was sentenced to five years in prison for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, was previously deported in 1997.

Since ICE launched Operation Predator in July of 2003, the agency has arrested more than 8,200 sex offenders nationwide. More than 1,100 of those arrests were made by ICE agents in the Los Angeles area.

Operation Predator is part of ICE’s expanded interior immigration enforcement strategy, which focuses on identifying and removing criminal aliens, immigration fugitives, and other immigration violators from the United States. The agency's top priority is arresting and removing foreign nationals who pose a threat to public safety or national security.


Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores. Kouri holds a bachelor of science in criminal justice and master of arts in public administration and he's a board certified protection professional. He is a Staff writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc.

http://americandaily.com/article/15252

http://sgvtribune.com/news/ci_4235254

Federal sweep nets 3 locally
Sexual predators in country illegally
By Christina L. Esparza Staff Writer
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

BALDWIN PARK - Three Baldwin Park men convicted of sex crimes were arrested this week in a federal sweep that netted 25 foreign national convicts, officials said Thursday.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice said Jose Angel Pakas-Murcia, 46, and Manuel Sanchez Vasquez, 36, are both illegal immigrants who have been deported in the past for their crimes. Officials at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not know the name of the third Baldwin Park man arrested.

Pakas-Murcia, a Honduras national, was convicted of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Florida in 1993 and was deported two years later, officials said. He was arrested Tuesday at a local car dealership where he worked as a parts department manager.

Officials did not identify the dealership.

Vasquez, a Mexican national, was deported in 1997 after being convicted of committing lewd and lascivious acts upon a child under 14, officials said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Curtis A. Kin, chief of the office's Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes section, said if found guilty, Pakas-Murcia and Vasquez will likely spend time in a federal penitentiary prior to being deported a second time.

"We thought this would be a good thing to send a very clear message that illegal immigrants committing crimes in this country will not be tolerated," Kin said.

Pakas-Murcia and Vasquez are two of five men who were allegedly deported once before and illegally re-entered the country.

"It's nice to know they are not in our city anymore," said Baldwin Park Police Capt. Michael Taylor.

Baldwin Park police did not participate in the arrests.

One of the five men who had allegedly entered the country illegally after being deported, 50-year-old Alejandro Rodriguez Villegas of Los Angeles, is still at large, officials said. The Salvadorian was deported in 1997 after committing a lewd act on a minor.

The sweep was part of Operation Clear Message, an arm of the national Operation Predator, an initiative by ICE designed to keep alien predatory criminals off the streets, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for ICE.

"One of the things that's unique about these cases is \ is essentially a tool we could use on foreign nationals we cannot use for citizens," Kice said. "Not only can we take them off the streets, we could move them out of the country. One of the troubling things about sex offenders is they re-offend."

A lot of times, Kice said, the convicts in these cases commit acts against others in the immigrant community.

christina.esparza@sgvn.com

(626) 962-8811, Ext. 2472