U.S. immigration authorities on Wednesday arrested a Peruvian gang leader wanted for nearly two dozen murders in his home country.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that Gianfranco Torres Navarro, 38, was arrested in Endicott, New York.
He is being held in a federal detention center near Buffalo while awaiting an immigration hearing, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Authorities said Torres-Navarro illegally entered the United States at the Texas-Mexico border on May 16. He was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol near Rome, Texas, that same day and later released into the U.S. with a notice to report for immigration processing, Fox News reported.
Peruvian gang leader Gianfranco Torres Navarro, wanted on 23 murder charges, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York after being captured at the border and released. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
It took federal authorities nearly two months to learn that Torres-Navarro was wanted in Peru on 23 murder charges after he allegedly fled the country after killing former police officer Cesar Quegua Herrera at a San Miguel restaurant in March, Peruvian media said.
ICE found him and his girlfriend, Michelle Sol Ivanna Ortiz Ubilus, on Wednesday and arrested them.
Peruvian authorities say Torres Navarro is the leader of a gang known as Los Killas de Ventanilla y Callao, which is accused of using violence to thwart rival gangs trying to cut into the gang’s main business – extorting construction companies.
Kamala Harris led Democrats in rejecting additional funding for border security in 2018.
Thomas Brophy, deportation enforcement chief for the Buffalo office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Torres Navarro “poses a significant threat to our community, and we will not allow New York to become a haven for dangerous aliens.”
“The officers at ERO Buffalo who took this individual into custody did a great job,” Brophy said in a statement provided to Fox News.
Ortiz-Ubilis is being held at a processing center in Pennsylvania, according to ICE’s online detainer search system.
Click here to get the FOX News app
Peruvian authorities have described Ortiz Ubilus as Torres Navarro’s right-hand woman, and she is said to have played a key role in Los Killers as his lieutenant and cashier.
She also has a sizable following on the social media platform TikTok, where she shows off her lavish lifestyle, which includes designer clothes, vacations at resorts and shooting at shooting ranges.
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
