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FIRST ON FOX — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to Fox News Digital that an illegal immigrant accused in a decade-long serial rape case in Indiana was previously convicted of multiple crimes and arrested twice by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Leonel Catalan-Torreblanca, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was arrested April 22 and is facing 30 charges including rape, sexual battery, criminal confinement, kidnapping, strangulation and burglary.
ICE has lodged an immigration detainer asking Indiana officials not to release him.
DHS told Fox News Digital Catalan-Torreblanca had prior convictions for patronizing a prostitute, voyeurism and multiple DUIs.
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It is unclear where and when he first illegally entered the U.S., but records show he was arrested by ICE in 2012 and was released under the Obama administration.
ICE arrested Catalan-Torreblanca again in 2017, and he voluntarily returned to Mexico in 2018.
He then illegally re-entered the U.S., a felony, in 2023 under the Biden administration, according to DHS.
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The string of alleged sexual assaults spanned from March 2013 to January 2024, Fox News Digital previously reported.
While local and federal investigators previously linked the attacks through DNA left at the crime scenes, they lacked a suspect match because Catalan-Torreblanca’s DNA was not entered into any federal databases, officials said.
The case was finally cracked when an ICE DNA swab was entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database, triggering a direct match that led to his swift arrest.
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“Thanks to the incredible work of the men and women of federal law enforcement, this demented rapist’s ten-year crime spree is over. He is now facing 30 charges including rape, sexual battery, criminal confinement, kidnapping, strangulation, and burglary,” said DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis. “ICE is asking Indiana officials to hand him over to ICE custody. Indiana cooperates with ICE, so we will be able to work together to get him off our streets and out of our country.”
“Under President [Donald] Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are NOT welcome in the United States,” Bis added.
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