6 foreign fugitives arrested in SoCal federal sweep

SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif. (KABC) -- Federal authorities arrested 27 high-profile fugitives from foreign countries in the U.S., including six in Southern California, in a three-day sweep.

The arrests were part of an operation across nine states that began Tuesday, where U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Marshalls located and arrested dangerous fugitives wanted by Interpol.

Of those arrested, five were wanted for homicide, two for kidnapping, one for raping a child and one for human sex trafficking.

"We certainly are not going to allow individuals to commit serious, egregious, violent crimes in foreign countries and come to the United States to hide out," said Jim Pilkington with ICE.

On Tuesday, federal officers descended on an industrial park in Santa Fe Springs and arrested 40-year-old Raul Ortiz Henriquez while he was working. The 40-year-old is wanted for abducting a girl leaving school and raping her in his home country of El Salvador.

Henriquez was taken to a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, where he was fingerprinted, photographed and transferred to a holding cell until his deportation to El Salvador.

He denied any knowledge of the crime to Eyewitness News and said he assumed he was being arrested because of his immigration status.

In Orange County, another fugitive was arrested for bribery charges in Central Asia.

Pilkington says the ICE enforcement and removal operation team works year round, tracking down fugitives who are trying to hide from their past.