Virginia apprehends one of El Salvador’s 100 Most Wanted Criminals

WASHINGTON – Deportation officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Washington, D.C. field office arrested a Salvadoran fugitive, who is listed as one of El Salvador’s top 100 most wanted criminals. ERO Washington D.C. captured Herberth Bonilla Garcia, 40, in a targeted operation that took place in Manassas (Virginia) on December 1.

Bonilla Garcia has previously entered the U.S. at least two times on an unknown date, at an unspecified location, without having been admitted to or paroled by an immigration official. In 2006 and 2012, he was expelled from the U.S.

“Herberth Bonilla-Garcia has a history of unlawfully entering the U.S. and this time he apparently did so to escape justice in his home country,” Erik Weiss, ERO Washington D.C. Assistant Field Office Director “The United States is not a safe haven for the world’s criminals. ERO Washington, D.C. remains committed to protecting our residents by enforcing our laws and exhausting every effort to ensure fugitives face the justice they seek to evade.”

Bonilla Garcia was arrested by the Government of El Salvador in January 2015 as well as April 2015. The warrants were issued for two charges: one for illicit association and the second for aggravated exortion.

ERO Washington, D.C. received an FBI lead referral on Bonilla Garcia’s possible presence in Northern Virginia.

An ICE foreign service national investigator for the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador confirmed Bonilla-Garcia was listed on El Salvador’s Top 100 Most Wanted Criminals and verified the warrants for illicit association and aggravated extortion.

Bonilla Garcia will be held in ERO custody, until he is released to El Salvador.

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