[JustTheNews] United States immigration authorities arrested a Peruvian gang leader on Wednesday in New York, who is wanted for allegedly killing at least 23 people in his home country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Thursday.
Gianfranco Torres-Navarro illegally entered the U.S. through the southern border in Texas in May, where he was arrested before being told to appear in court for immigration proceedings, according to ICE. He allegedly fled Peru after the death of a retired police officer and the shooting of a municipal employee.
Torres-Navarro is the alleged leader of the Peruvian gang "Los Killers de Ventanilla y Callao," or "Los Killers" for short.
"Gianfranco Torres-Navarro poses a significant threat to our communities, and we won’t allow New York to be a safe haven for dangerous noncitizens," Thomas Brophy, the director of enforcement removal operations for ICE’s field office in Buffalo, New York said in a statement, per the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
U.S. officials also arrested Torres-Navarro's girlfriend Mishelle Sol Ivanna Ortíz Ubillús, who has been described as his right hand, and a prominent member of the "Los Killers" gang. She is being held at a processing center in Pennsylvania, while Torres-Navarro is being held in Buffalo.
Officials said they moved to arrest the couple after receiving word from Peru that Torres-Navarro was wanted in his home country on July 8. Six other members of the gang were arrested in Peru in a string of raids in June for extortion, homicide, and contract killing.
Peruvian authorities say the gang, formed in 2022, has used violence to thwart rivals and further its core business of extorting construction companies in an area along the Pacific coast where Peru’s main port is located.
Torres-Navarro was previously a member of the Los Malditos de Angamos criminal organization, Peru’s Public Prosecutor’s Office said. He is also known as “Gianfranco 23,” a reference to the number of people he is alleged to have killed or ordered killed. He reportedly has the names of victims tattooed on his body.
Jorge Chavez-Cotrina, the head of Peru’s Special Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime, told The Associated Press that the crimes Torres-Navarro was wanted for include contract killings, extortion and running a criminal organization.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has described Ortiz Ubillús as Torres Navarro’s romantic partner, lieutenant and cashier. She has a sizable following on TikTok, where she's shown off their luxe lifestyle, including designer clothes and resort vacations.
| So your usual line of vicious thugs, but not an international narco cartel. Therefore Page 3: Non-WoT, not Page 1. |
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