A former judge in New Mexico was arrested by Federal Internal Security investigative agents on Thursday and was accused of tampering with evidence in a case against a man suspected of being Member of the Tren De Aragua gangAccording to a criminal complaint filed on Friday.
The complaint claims that Joel Kano, the former Donna VI province judge in Donna Anna, has destroyed evidence in a federal investigation in the Venezuelan man accused of illegally in the United States and resides in a back house on the property owned by the judge and his wife in Las Crossus.
His arrest came a day before the FBI Melocoki Provincial Judge Hana Dogan was arrestedOn the pretext that she hindered the federal authorities, who seek to detention immigrant, not documented by accompanying him through the door of the non -republican jury in the court. The statement said that a statement issued on behalf of the judge said that it “will defend herself strongly and look to absolve.”
On Friday, US Public Prosecutor Bam Bondi linked the two cases under the task of the Trump administration of not tolerance with those who illegally come to the United States and any judges believed to help them.
“We send a very strong message today,” Bondi said at Fox News. “If you are staying running away, we do not care who you are, and if you are helping to hide one, if you give TDA members, anyone illegal in this country, we will come after you and judge you. We will find you.”
The New Mexico Judge, who was recently resigned, made a notification earlier this spring after the Federal agents conducted a search for his property. His last day on the bench was March 21.
A request to search at the back house in late February claims that in addition to the suspect member, two other Venezuelan lived in the country illegally and that the adult Canos daughter lives in the property.
Federal officials accused the judge of destroying a mobile phone that is said to belong to a suspect member of Adrian Ortega Lopez.
In a criminal complaint, officials said that the judge destroyed the phone with a hammer and that the device is being pursuing because it may contain photographs showing that Ortega Lopez has weapons, claiming that some of them belong to Kano, his wife and their daughter.
A separate federal complaint against Ortega Lopez, which accuses him of illegally possessing a firearm, indicates that there is an unknown child accused of being a member of TDA and that tattoos support the claim. The unknown party inspired the investigation, according to the complaint.
Foreign Minister Marco Rubio appointed TDA as a foreign terrorist organization in February.
On Friday, the wife of the judge, Nancy Kano, was accused of conspiring to tampering with evidence. The criminal complaint claims that she told Ortega Lopez to delete his account on Facebook, where he posted pictures of weapons claiming to be owned by the judge, his wife or daughter.
It is not clear whether Canos has a lawyer for this issue. Two of the phone numbers associated with their address, including one for a company called Cano Insurance, was out of the arrangement. It was not clear whether Ortega-Lopez had a lawyer. The Federal Defender Office in New Mexico did not respond to the request for commenting immediately.
In March, the judge ordered the release of Ortega-Lopez on bail and in the “third-party custody” of Nansi Kano. The federal government has successfully argued that it was closed after the prosecutors said that his mobile phone had pictures of the head of the head of the head and Ortega Lopez associated with the well -known TDA members, according to a spokesman for the US Prosecutor’s Office in New Mexico. A session is scheduled to be held on Tuesday.
Joel Kano was reserved at the detention center in Donna Anna on Thursday with no bonds, according to a record prisoner. Nancy Kano was seized about half an hour ago under any conditions of the bonds, as mentioned by the records.
