Two taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs
Comments 6 | Recommend 3
February 02, 2010 10:31 AM
JANNETTE PIPPIN
Updated at 5:54 p.m.

NEWPORT — A Carteret County restaurant remains in business but is now operating without a co-owner and one of its employees.

Ehab Mohammed Ahmed Ghareeb, co-owner of Everyday Italian Restaurant in Newport, and Bassem Fangary, an employee, were taken into custody last week by authorities with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for being in the country illegally.

Their arrest on Friday was part of an ICE fugitives operation for violations to the Immigration and Nationality Act. Both men failed to comply with a final order of deportation back to Egypt issued by an immigration judge, becoming ICE fugitives, according to ICE spokesman Ivan L. Ortiz-Delgado.

The men are being held at the North Georgia Detention Center awaiting their removal from the United States.

Ghareeb and Fangary are two of three federal fugitives taken into custody last week for being in the country illegally.

Deputies arrested Francisco Mondragon Limon on Thursday night for misusing the 911 system after calling the Carteret County Communications Center several times and refusing to provide an address or reason for calling, the release said.

He was picked up at a residence on Mayberry Loop Road in Morehead City and transported to the Carteret County Jail. He was released to ICE agents on Friday morning.

Deputy Tim Quillen had previously contacted ICE in reference to Limon and was told Limon was also in the country illegally.

Limon was granted a voluntary departure to his native Mexico, Ortiz said.

Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck credited local agencies and ICE for working cooperatively on the case.

“Our deputies, the Newport police and the ICE agents all worked together as a team in locating and removing these individuals from Carteret County,â€