A 27-year-old man accused of stealing a Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration truck and going on a rampage, slamming into more than a dozen cars late last week, is an illegal alien.
Flavio Cesar Lanuza was arrested by Maryland State Police and was charged with vehicle theft and first-degree assault, with more charges likely to be filed soon, investigators told WUSA 9.
Darius Reeves of the Baltimore office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that Lanuza is a Nicaraguan national who was encountered at the U.S. border and gave officials there “an address that was not anywhere in the state of Maryland.”
Reeves said that it was not clear how Lanuza ended up in Maryland and that ICE has lodged a detainer request on him with Montgomery County, a sanctuary county and hotbed for illegal alien criminal activity.
“It’s a situation where county executives are taking an independent and personal view of how to cooperate with ICE which means they’re not going to cooperate with ICE at all,” Reeves said.
“Fiscal year 2024, presently, to date thus far, we have issued 119 detainers,” said Reeves, noting that “none are being honored.”
WATCH:
Complete recap of the Maryland Police Chase, He hit multiple citizen vehicles and a Police vehicle. pic.twitter.com/gwj4BPK7nY
— KingWolf277 (@KingWolf277) February 16, 2024
Ira Mehlman, with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), urged Montgomery County to honor the detainer request so that ICE could protect the community by deporting Lanuza.
“They shouldn’t be in the country simply because they’ve violated our immigration laws, but clearly, once somebody has taken that additional threat and posed a threat or danger, then the local jurisdiction in the interest of protecting their own communities should be more than willing to cooperate,” Mehlman said.
Maryland State Police said that the incident on Friday started when they responded to a report of a Ford Ranger being involved in a hit-and-run accident involving four vehicles.
The Maryland DOT State Highway Administration truck responded to the scene to check on the well-being of the driver, at which time the driver exited the vehicle and stole the Maryland DOT State Highway Administration truck.
Behind the wheel of the stolen truck, the suspect rammed into a Maryland State Police vehicle and hit numerous civilian vehicles while trying to evade law enforcement. At times the suspect drove into oncoming traffic.
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“According to a preliminary investigation, the suspect is alleged to have struck 13 vehicles, which led to a civilian and two law enforcement members, a Maryland state trooper and a Montgomery County Police officer, being transported to area hospitals for treatment of their injuries,” Maryland State Police said.