U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Newark has arrested four more individuals illegally present in the United States with histories of child exploitation, bringing the total number of recent arrests in this ongoing operation to eight.
ICE Homeland Security Investigations, supported by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Newark, apprehended Daniel Garcia Cruz, a 35-year-old Mexican national, on August 3 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Garcia was previously sentenced to three years of probation following a conviction for criminal sexual contact on March 24, 2023, in Hudson County’s Superior Court.
On July 24, ICE HSI and ERO Newark arrested Manuel Gregorio Loja Loja and Leonidas Rivera Gonzalez. Loja, a 36-year-old Ecuadorian national, received a three-year probation sentence around June 24, 2024, from Essex County’s Superior Court for false imprisonment and cruelty and neglect of children. Rivera, a 40-year-old Salvadorian national, was sentenced to parole supervision for life after being found guilty of endangering-sexual conduct with a child by a non-caretaker around July 14, 2023, in Hudson County’s Superior Court…