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* The "cultural enrichment" that the clownsabove bring will not be missed.
Collier deputies, federal agents
round up illegal aliens,
gang members
By RYAN MILLS (Contact)
Originally published 4:16 p.m., Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Updated 7:22 p.m., Wednesday, September 3, 2008
NAPLES — The Collier County Sheriff’s Office teamed up with
federal agents to arrest 25 criminal aliens, including two known
gang members, during a two-day operation.
The Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Alien Task Force recently completed
40 investigations that were approved for arrest by the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Collier sheriff’s
Cpl. Mike Williams said.
On Aug. 28 and 29, teams of Collier deputies and ICE agents from
Fort Myers searched Collier County and made 25 arrests.
“Every single one of these people had a criminal history,” Williams
said. “Some were sex offenders, two were gang members - one
LaRaza and one Sur13 - many had arrests for cocaine and marijuana
trafficking, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault and battery. ...
We knew exactly who we wanted to get.”
Included in the arrests were: Emanuel Alce, 28, a Bahamian national
who was ordered removed by an immigration judge in January;
Woodley Delva, 22, a Haitian national and registered sex offender
previously convicted of lewd and lascivious battery who was
sentenced to a year in jail and two years’ probation; Julio
Ledezma-Vasquez, 40, a Mexican national convicted of trafficking
cocaine; and Francisco Francisco, 38, a Guatemalan national
convicted of drug offenses.
The nationalities of the others taken into custody weren’t released.
One woman, whose name wasn’t released, was issued a notice to appear
in court instead of jailed because she had a 17-year-old daughter she
needed to tend to, Williams said.
Of the 40 criminal aliens the deputies and ICE agents were looking
for, 15 still are sought.
“Some of them have left the area, we found out,” Williams said. “Some
of them we haven’t been able to find yet. They’re criminals. By nature
they’re very difficult to find.”
The criminal aliens located so far are being held at ICE facilities
across the state, ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas said.
ICE is prosecuting two of the cases along with the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms because the men who were arrested had guns.
Other than Alce, who already had been ordered removed from the
country, all the criminal aliens arrested will face an immigration
judge, Navas said.
Collier deputies make similar arrests every week, Williams said, but
don’t usually ask for ICE’s assistance.
“We wanted ICE down because we had a lot to get,” he said.
Collier deputies are able to conduct immigration operations because
about a year ago more than two dozen of them were trained by ICE
to identify criminal aliens and initiate removal proceedings from the
country. The training is allowed under section 287(g) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office was the first in Florida to partner
with ICE in the 287(g) program, followed by the Bay County, Brevard
County, Jacksonville-area and Manatee County sheriff’s offices this
summer.
“They can actually issue the charging documents and make an
immigration, administration arrest,” Navas said of the local
deputies. “It’s definitely been successful.”
