Alleged gang members among 13 arrested by ICE, DEA in Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Thirteen people are in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — including several alleged gang members — after multiple agencies made an arrest on Sunday.

According to the Rocky Mountain Division of the United States Drug Enforcement, 13 people were arrested on Feb. 16 — and four of the arrested individuals are said to be members of a gang. Officials with Rocky Mountain DEA posted on social media and said the arrested people are in the custody of ICE for processing.

“Teamwork makes the dream work – thank you to our excellent partners in the DEA for taking dangerous criminal aliens off of the streets of Utah with us,” Salt Lake ICE said on social media on Wednesday.

Jonathan Pullen, Special Agent in Charge of DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division, told ABC4.com that the people who were arrested are “serious criminals that don’t belong in our communities,”

Pullen said some of the people arrested on Sunday included people that officials have been tracking for some time. He said some of the arrestees were involved in sexual crimes involving children, either in their home countries or in the U.S.

“A number of them, one of the guys from Utah had been arrested and deported something like 15 times — and that was one of the guys arrested this weekend,” Pullen said.

ICE and the DEA are targeting convicted criminals in their operations — but Pullen said if crews encounter someone who is only guilty of crossing the border illegally, they will be arrested, too.

“That is a crime,” Pullen said. “And they will be picked up and arrested for that.”

However, Pullen also said not everyone arrested will be taken into custody. One woman who was recently arrested had a court date after contacting immigration officials, and was subsequently released.

Pullen also said Americans are saving money as people are being sent back to their home countries, and that the arrests are helping dismantle cartel operations in Utah.

Sorina Trauntvein contributed to this report.