A disgraced New Mexico magistrate judge and his wife are under arrest after they allegedly harbored reported Tren de Aragua gang members. The judge resigned from his position last week after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested a Venezuelan man said to be living on his property.
ICE law enforcement officials arrested recently resigned Magistrate Judge Joel Cano and his wife, Nancy, at their home in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Thursday. ICE officials executed a search warrant and probable cause warrant and took them into custody, Fox 14 El Paso reported. Joel Cano is currently charged with tampering with evidence and his wife is charged with conspiracy to tamper, the report states.
The Cano couple were booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center between 6:30 and 7 p..m. on Thursday, the Albuquerque Journal reported. They are currently being held without bond. Before being elected to the magistrate judge position in 2010, Joel Cano served for nearly 23 years in the Las Cruces Police Department.
Joel Cano resigned from his position as a magistrate judge in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, after ICE agents raided his home and took 23-year-old Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, a Venezuelan migrant who illegally entered the U.S. in December 2023 and is suspected of being a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, into custody on firearms-related charges, Breitbart Texas reported.
Federal prosecutors in the District of New Mexico allege that Ortega-Lopez was illegally in possession of a firearm and has ties to the hyperviolent Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump and the U.S. State Department declared the gang to be a foreign terrorist organization.
Police arrested Orgega-Lopez while executing a search warrant on February 28 at the home of Dona Ana County, New Mexico, Magistrate Judge Joel Cano and his wife, Nancy, the Albuquerque Journal reported this week. The report follows a detention hearing where prosecutors claim the illegal alien is a flight risk and an alleged Tren de Aragua gang member.
Court records obtained by revealed that Ortega-Lopez, a Venezuelan national, entered the United States illegally in Eagle Pass, Texas, during the peak of the Biden Border Crisis in December 2023. Due to overcrowding in the Eagle Pass detention facility, he was released three days later.
Social media posts obtained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico showed Ortega-Lopez and other illegal aliens at a shooting range. They appeared to be in possession of multiple firearms and a large quantity of handgun and rifle ammunition. In one image, the man is holding an AR-15-style rifle in one hand and a semi-automatic pistol in the other. A video showed the Venezuelan migrant in possession of another AR-15 equipped with a suppressor. He fired the rifle until it was empty and then reloaded it with a new magazine, which he continued to fire, prosecutors stated.
The photos and videos showed Ortega-Lopez displaying Tren de Aragua gang tattoos. The United States government recently declared this violent gang to be a Transnational Criminal Organization.
Investigators found additional firearms in a neighboring home owned by Nancy Cano’s daughter. Ortega-Lopez was seen in possession of several of these firearms.
On Tuesday, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that Cano may never again hold a judicial office in New Mexico, Fox 14 revealed. The local Fox News/CBS affiliate was on the scene as the couple were arrested and placed in handcuffs.
Ortega-Lopez remains in custody at the jail ahead of a detention hearing. He is scheduled to appear in the New Mexico District Court on April 30.
It is not clear if Judge Cano or his wife, Nancy, will be charged with harboring an illegal alien or providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.
Read the full article here
