U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that they captured a validated Colombian gang leader wanted for homicide, aggravated theft, and arms trafficking in his home country who was illegally in the U.S.
ICE said the Colombian fugitive is a validated leader of the Las Colinas criminal organization based in Santa Marta, Colombia.
The 29-year-old was caught by Border Patrol in September 2023, after illegally crossing into the U.S. near San Ysidro, California. He was served with a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge.
He was then transferred to Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) San Diego. Inexplicably, the gang leader was then served an order of release on recognizance and released from custody, ICE said.
He was allowed to roam freely in the U.S. for nearly a year before ERO Baltimore arrested him in Maryland last week.
"This Colombian fugitive is wanted by authorities in his home country for allegedly committing some violent crimes," said ERO Baltimore acting Deputy Field Office Director Vernon Liggins. "He attempted to hide from justice in Maryland, and we simply cannot allow that to happen. Our officers are the best in the world at finding people who don’t want to be found, and we will not allow our Maryland communities to become safe havens for the world’s bad actors. ERO Baltimore will continue to prioritize public safety by apprehending egregious noncitizen offenders."
His arrest comes as significant issues with vetting at the southern border, and problems within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a whole continue to plague the organization.
AUTHORITIES NAB 8 SUSPECTED TERRORISTS WITH TIES TO ISIS IN MULTI-CITY STING OPERATION
A scathing new report from the House Judiciary Committee Republicans reveals the Biden-Harris administration has released dozens of migrants on terror watchlists into the U.S.
"Under the Biden-Harris Administration, of the more than 250 illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist who were encountered by Border Patrol at the southwest border between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, DHS has released into American communities at least 99, with at least 34 others in DHS custody but not yet removed from the United States," the report by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, a copy of which was first obtained by Fox News Digital, said.
"That does not include the untold numbers of potential terrorists that evaded Border Patrol to enter the United States as part of nearly 2 million "gotaways" since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration," the report says.
The report, citing information provided to committee staff in June, also found that Border Patrol had encountered migrants on the terror watchlist from 36 different countries.
DHS has also identified over 400 individuals brought to the U.S. from Eastern European and Central Asian countries by an ISIS-affiliated smuggling network in the past several months.
Back in June, eight Tajikistan nationals with ties to ISIS were busted by federal authorities in New York City, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. All eight came in via the southern border illegally, but no derogatory information was flagged during processing, sources told Fox News.
"With national security experts and immigration officials increasingly concerned about the threat of terrorism originating from the border, it is clear that policymakers must take all necessary steps to secure the border and stop the flow of illegal aliens. However, the Biden-Harris Administration has refused to address the national security nightmare created by its radical, open-borders agenda," the staff interim report read.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
