ICE removes Colombian fugitive convicted of murder
BOGOTA, Colombia — A Colombian murderer was removed from the United States Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers in Miami.
Pedro Nel Moreno-Romero, 51, was convicted of aggravated murder in 2013 in Colombia and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment. Moreno-Romero allegedly murdered a friend, then dismembered the body with a machete and later discarded the remains in a plastic bag.
Moreno-Romero, who had been on the run since 2007, was immediately taken into custody by Colombian authorities upon his arrival in Bogota.
"Moreno-Romero will now have to account for his gruesome crime," said ERO Miami Field Office Director Mark Moore. "He was mistaken in thinking that he would be able to hide in our country. Let this be a lesson to others who try to use the United States as their hiding place: you will be found and brought to justice."
Moreno-Romero illegally entered the United States at or near Hidalgo, Texas, in August 2007 after allegedly fleeing Colombia the day after committing the murder. He was ordered removed by an immigration judge in May 2014. His subsequent appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals was denied in October 2014.
Since Oct. 1, 2009, ERO has removed more than 720 foreign fugitives from the United States who were being sought in their native countries for serious crimes, including kidnapping, rape and murder.
In fiscal year 2013, ICE conducted 368,644 removals nationwide. Nearly 60 percent of ICE's total removals had been previously convicted of a criminal offense; 82 percent of individuals removed from the interior of the United States had previously been convicted of a criminal offense.
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