HOUSTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Elimination Operations (ERO) Houston Area Workplace eliminated an unlawfully current international fugitive Wednesday who is needed in his house nation of Mexico for allegedly murdering his fiancée in 2015.
Osmar Mendez Martinez, a 34-year-old unlawfully current Mexican nationwide, was transported by ICE officers Nov. 9 from the Montgomery Processing Middle (MPC) in Conroe, Texas, to the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in Laredo, Texas. Upon arrival, he was turned over to Mexican regulation enforcement officers.
Mexican authorities allege that in November 2015 Mendez Martinez strangled his fiancée and decapitated and burned her physique on the Tabasco State Park in southeast Mexico. After Mexican officers accused him of the murder, Mendez Martinez fled the nation and illegally entered the U.S. on Nov. 15, 2015, close to Rio Grande Metropolis, Texas. Immigration officers from the U.S. Border Patrol (BP) encountered Mendez Martinez that very same day and took him into custody. Throughout questioning, he falsely claimed to BP officers that his identify was Maximo Garcia-Gutierrez, and he was returned to Mexico.
On an unknown date and at an unknown location, Mendez Martinez illegally re-entered the U.S. with out inspection or parole. Working with a crew of Overseas Service Nationwide Investigators and Tabasco State prosecutors underneath the Safety Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement (SAFE) program, the ICE ERO Assistant Attaché for Elimination (AAR) in Mexico Metropolis decided that Mendez Martinez had probably assumed the id of deceased Mexican citizen Maximo Garcia-Gutierrez. Authorities additional believed that he had fraudulently obtained a Mexican passport and different identification bearing that very same identify. Upon discovering this new data, ERO Mexico Metropolis instantly handed it on to the ERO Houston Area Workplace and an investigation was launched to find the fugitive within the Houston space.
On Feb. 9, 2022, ERO Houston fugitive operations officers had been in a position to efficiently find Mendez Martinez in north Houston and took him into custody. On Nov. 1, an immigration decide (IJ) with the Justice Division’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered Mendez Martinez faraway from the U.S. to Mexico, which was carried out by ICE officers on Nov. 9.
“That is one other instance of the sturdy partnerships that the ERO Houston Area Workplace has with our worldwide companions and ICE places of work overseas,” mentioned Matt Baker, appearing discipline workplace director for ERO Houston. “The power to obtain intelligence from our attaché places of work world wide and examine these leads in close to real-time to find and take away harmful fugitives from our group is a useful instrument that strengthens public security and bolsters worldwide cooperation.”
“This was one other wonderful alternative for ERO to showcase the total extent of our portfolio, together with highlighting the in depth work that goes into constructing these collaborative relationships with our international regulation enforcement officers,” mentioned Pedro R. Crescente III, appearing ICE ERO AAR in Mexico Metropolis. “From the preliminary investigation to the arrest, elimination proceedings and shutting with a profitable repatriation – all of us profit in our mission of imposing our dedication to creating our communities safer and strengthening our worldwide partnerships.”
The SAFE Program is a fugitive enforcement and data sharing partnership that was created in 2012 to raised use topic data derived from native in-country investigative assets and results in find, apprehend, detain, and take away people residing within the U.S. illegally who had been topic to international arrest warrants. The SAFE Program operates underneath the respective host nation’s AAR, which constructs a SAFE process pressure composed of related international regulation enforcement businesses, immigration authorities, attorneys common, and nationwide identification repositories – in addition to different regional, nationwide, state, and native authorities businesses. The managing AAR ensures that every process pressure member complies with SAFE insurance policies and requirements in keeping with this system’s customary working procedures. As soon as established, the AAR-led SAFE process pressure generates new leads and vets present SAFE fugitive referrals for ERO motion.
Members of the general public who’ve details about international fugitives are urged to contact ICE by calling the ICE Tip Line at 1 (866) 347-2423 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They’ll additionally file a tip on-line by finishing ICE’s online tip form.
For extra information and data on how the ICE ERO Houston Area Workplace carries out its immigration enforcement mission in Southeast Texas comply with us on Twitter @EROHouston.
