U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Phoenix says it has deported a Salvadoran man who once served as a backup in the country’s Legislature and played professional soccer.
Police in Central America have been waiting for more than a decade to arrest him.
ICE officials say 45-year-old Roberto Carlos Silva-Pereira stands accused of bribery and money laundering in his native El Salvador. Silva allegedly did the crimes to score construction contracts when he was an alternate in El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly.
Court records say Silva is also accused of planning several murders in Guatemala.
ICE says Silva had been fighting to stay in the United States since 2007, when he was held on suspicion of entering the country illegally. ICE says Silva had a deportation order since 2008 and had recently run out of chances to appeal.
