A Honduran gangster with a lengthy rap sheet was apprehended at the Canadian border after being deported from the U.S. on separate occasions, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have announced. 

In a press release, ICE confirmed that a Honduran national and member of the notorious 18th Street gang with numerous convictions was successfully detained earlier this month.

The release stated:

The Honduran national was removed from the United States in January 2006, twice in June 2013, February 2015, July 2015 and February 2016. He has been convicted of DWI, assault and battery, unauthorized use of a vehicle, illegal entry, disorderly conduct and drug trafficking. During an immigration hearing, he admitted he was affiliated with the Sicarios New Yorkers-XV-18 branch of the 18th Street Gang.

Not only is the man a convicted criminal in the U.S., but he is also wanted in Honduras after another conviction for drug trafficking:

In October 2022, a Honduran court convicted him of drug trafficking charges and sentenced him to four years and six months of incarceration. After he failed to appear to serve his sentence in July 2023, the court issued a warrant for his arrest.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) again arrested the gang member Feb. 1, 2024, after he unlawfully entered the United States near Newport, Vermont, without being inspected, admitted or paroled by a designated immigration official. The U.S. Border Patrol transferred him to ERO Boston’s custody; ERO Boston served him with a notice of intent/decision to reinstate a prior removal order and a warrant of removal/deportation. The unlawfully present Honduran gang member will remain in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody pending his removal from the United States.

ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons also weighed in:

This unlawfully present Honduran gang member represents a significant threat to the residents of our New England neighborhoods. 

Not only is he a self-admitted member of a violent criminal enterprise, but he has also repeatedly defied U.S. immigration laws in order to flee some serious charges in his home country. ERO Boston will not allow New England to become a safe haven for the world’s criminals. We will aggressively pursue anyone attempting to use our community as a hideout from justice.

Although locals should be grateful that sanity has prevailed and that this individual is facing a swift deportation, the arrest equally highlights the absurd nature of an immigration system that allows those who have been deported and convicted of crimes to repeatedly re-enter the country. 

His arrest also serves as a reminder of the countless criminals who cross the southern border every day, many of them with links to organized crime in the form of drug cartels and ultra violent street gangs. 

According to the think tank InSight Crime, Barrio 18 (or the 18th Street Gang) is "one of the largest youth gangs in the Western Hemisphere" and is a direct rival of the equally notorious El Salvadorian gang MS13. 

Although many of its members have been arrested during El Salvador's criminal crackdown, the observatory notes that it still has "thousands of members spread throughout Central America and the United States" and remains a significant criminal threat in the region."