Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit recently arrested a former Colombian National Army battalion commander who was wanted for charges of forced disappearance, homicide of a protected person, and weapons and ammunition trafficking.
The individual, Hector Alejandro Cabuya de León, 52, was arrested at his residence in Texas with the help of local police.
The apprehension of Cabuya de León was supported by ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center due to the grievous nature of his crimes. The center was established in 2009 and utilizes ICE’s resources to identify, track, and capture human rights abusers should they fall into ICE’s jurisdiction. To help with enforcement, the center leverages historians, lawyers, intelligence and research specialists, and analysts to direct the agency’s broader enforcement efforts against wanted individuals.
In total, more than 380 individuals wanted for human rights abuses under various immigration statuses have been apprehended by ICE since 2003. Since 2007, the agency has obtained deportation orders and removed 785 known or suspected human rights violators in the United States.
HSI currently has more than 160 active investigations into suspected human rights violators from 95 different countries and is pursuing more than 1,700 leads into those investigations.