An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was arrested in Texas Friday, more than a week after Minnesota officials charged him with assault in the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant while on the job in January.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty confirmed the arrest in a Friday morning post on X. The agent, Christian Castro, 52, had been in Minneapolis as part of Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s monthslong immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities.
“Today’s arrest is a critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro,” Moriarty wrote. “The [Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s] investigative work was instrumental in this process and we’re grateful for their collaboration as we pursue accountability for this incident on behalf of Mr. Sosa-Celis, his family and our community.”
Castro was charged with four counts of assault in the second degree and one count of falsely reporting a crime roughly four months after authorities say he shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg following a traffic stop. Authorities said that shortly after the shooting, while speaking under oath, Castro said that he had been attacked by Sosa-Celis. The Department of Homeland Security initially supported the claims made by Castro and another federal agent, which were quickly disputed by eyewitness accounts.
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In a rare acknowledgment of potential error, Tricia McLaughlin, then-spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said a few weeks later that Castro and another federal agent present at the scene had appeared to make “untruthful statements” about the events.
Castro was arrested after prosecutors put out a nationwide warrant for his arrest. Minnesota investigators traveled to Texas, Moriarty’s office said in a statement, and worked with investigators from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General and the Texas Rangers to take Castro into custody.
At a press conference earlier this month at which Moriarty announced the charges against Castro, the Hennepin County attorney said that she expected the case would be moved to federal court, where Castro could use the supremacy clause of the Constitution, which grants federal agents protection from state-level charges in some cases, as a defense.
Castro is the second federal agent that Hennepin County prosecutors have charged with criminal conduct related to Operation Metro Surge. In April, Moriarty announced second-degree assault charges against Gregory Donnell Morgan, an ICE agent who is accused of pointing his gun at two drivers in February while driving an unmarked car in Minnesota.
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