(CNSNews.com) – One of the nine people charged in the kidnapping and stabbing death of a 15-year-old boy in Montgomery County, Md., is an illegal immigrant who escaped a prison in El Salvador where he was jailed for homicide and gun trafficking, according to the Montgomery County Police Department.
Police believe Joel Ventura-Quintanilla and the other suspects were members of the violent 18th Street Gang, which has ties to drug cartels in Mexico and Columbia. The victim, Dennys Alfredo Guzman-Saenz, was believed to have a relative involved in the rival MS-13 gang but was not believed to be involved himself, police said.
Lucille Baur, deputy director of Police Media Services, told CNSNews.com that county policy prohibits officers from seeking immigration status of individuals but that in this case Ventura-Quintanilla, 22, told police about his prison escape during interrogation.
“It just happened that in this particular case that information regarding one of our suspects is included in his charging documents because during the interview process, he provided information to detectives,” Baur said.
“He (Ventura-Quintanilla) was the first individual arrested, and during the interview process, he gave false names and then eventually gave his real name and stated that he had escaped from Cojuteteque Prison in El Salvador on Aug. 8, 2008,” Baur said.
“And then that information was confirmed through a press release from the government of El Salvador verifying that he had, in fact, escaped from prison,” Baur said.
Baur said police report the name of any individual, regardless of nationality, who is charged with a violent crime or a crime involving a weapon, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which can then determine immigration status.
Following status documentation, ICE can file a detainer--or request--with Montgomery County, asking that the individual not be released from custody after the individual completes his sentence or is not sentenced.
Ventura-Quintanilla was arrested and charged with first degree murder on May 7 in the death of Guzman-Saenz, who on Jan. 18--a date chosen for the killing because of the gang’s name--was allegedly abducted by Ventura-Quintanilla and four other gang members.
The suspects allegedly took Guzman-Saenz to Malcolm King Park in Gaithersburg where they were joined by at least four other individuals who are also believed to be gang members.
Police said the teen, who was a freshman at High Point High School in Beltsville, died after being stabbed dozens of times. His body was found the next morning by someone who was cleaning the park.
By May 12, police had arrested eight other individuals and charged them with first degree murder and other crimes: Ysaud Flores, 30, Ana Abarca, 18, Daniel A. Zavala, 26, Silvia Martinez, 19, David Antonio Lozano, 32, Joel Antonio Lovo-Reyes, 28, Francis E. Artiga-Cardoza, 22, and Ana Villatoro, 17.
Baur was unable to tell CNSNews.com whether ICE has filed detainers for any of the nine individuals charged in the case, and ICE did not provide that information to CNSNews.com by press time.
When asked by CNSNews.com about the immigration status of the nine individuals charged in the kidnapping and murder case, ICE confidentiality and privacy policies were cited by staff for the reason this information about the suspects is not released to the media.
The Montgomery County Police provided photographs to CNSNews.com of eight of the nine suspects. The photo of 17-year-old Ana Villatoro, who has been charged as an adult with first degree murder, kidnapping, kidnapping of a child under 16 and armed robbery charges, was not released because of the Montgomery County Police Department policy not to release photos of minors to the media.