Court papers stated that suspected gang member Cristhian Ortega-Lopez was living in a building on the judge’s property when the illegal immigrant was arrested.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday provided more details about a former New Mexico judge’s arrest the previous day for allegedly allowing an illegal immigrant and suspected Tren de Aragua gang member to live at his residence.
Former New Mexico Magistrate Judge Joel Cano and his wife, who were arrested Thursday, are now facing charges, Bondi told Fox News on Friday. Inmate booking reports released by the Doña Ana County Detention Center show that Cano and his wife face charges of evidence tampering.
“This is the last person we want in our country, nor will we ever tolerate a judge or anyone else harboring them,” Bondi said of the suspected gang member and Cano.
Court papers filed earlier this month by federal prosecutors in the case involving the suspected gang member, Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, stated that he was living in a building on the Canos’s property in Las Cruces, New Mexico, when he and several other illegal immigrants were arrested.
In Friday’s interview, the attorney general said that Cano took the Tren de Aragua member’s cell phones and “beat it with a hammer, destroyed it, and then [took] the pieces to a city dumpster to dispose of it to protect him.”
Bondi added that Ortega-Lopez showed signs of being in a gang or affiliated with criminal activity, including a necklace that said “kill” and that said “something about death.” He also had pictures on his cellphone of “two decapitated victims” and was “sending them out” to other individuals, the attorney general added.
Cano’s wife, Nancy Cano, is also charged with destroying evidence, Bondi said, adding that the Canos “gave [Ortega-Lopez] assault rifles that belonged to their daughter.”
Ortega-Lopez and other known Tren de Aragua members then went to a shooting range with suppressors and were shooting, she said.
The Canos “were allegedly giving him assault rifles, AK-47s, AR-15s with a suppresser, a known [Tren de Aragua] member, letting him go to a shooting range to refine and perfect his shooting skills,” Bondi said elsewhere in the interview. “What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me.”
