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Aug 24, 2006 10:45 am US/Pacific

25 Alleged Foreign National Sex Offenders Arrested
(CBS) LOS ANGELES Twenty-five people were arrested during an operation targeting "foreign national sex offenders," including a Mexican man who allegedly tried to kidnap a 7-year-old girl, authorities said Thursday.

The enforcement effort was part of Operation Predator, which is responsible for the arrests of more than 8,200 sex offenders nationwide.

More than 1,100 of those arrests were made in the Los Angeles area.

"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 of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office of investigations in Los Angeles.

Personnel from ICE and the U.S. Attorney's Office conducted the three-day enforcement action.

Four of the suspects -- two Salvadorans, a Honduran and a Mexican -- had been deported from the United States previously, ICE reported. They are being prosecuted for "re-entering the United States after deportation," a felony that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if convicted.

Among the suspects was Jose Angel Pakas-Murcia, 46, a Honduran man deported in 1995 after serving time for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Florida. ICE agents arrested Pakas-Murcia Tuesday at a Southland car dealership, where he worked as a manager in the parts department.

The remaining 21 sex offenders -- including 17 Mexicans, three Salvadorans, and a Filipino -- will be placed in administrative immigration proceedings.

Fourteen of them are legal permanent residents whose criminal convictions make them subject to deportation. Seven others entered the country illegally, ICE reported.

One of them was identified as Gabino Chavez-Rosales, a 43-year-old Mexican national living in Glendale who was convicted in California state court of lewd acts with a minor, ICE reported.

The charges against Chavez-Rosales stemmed from an incident in which he allegedly tried to kidnap a 7-year-old girl who was playing in the parking lot of a coin-operated laundry, ICE reported.

Also arrested 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, ICE reported.

Agents, meanwhile, were continuing their efforts to find Alejandro Rodriguez Villegas, 50, of Los Angeles. The Salvadoran, who was previously deported in 1997, was sentenced to five years in prison for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14.