It took Minnesota prosecutors, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Texas Rangers, and the DHS Inspector General to make it happen.
Not ICE.
The agency where Christian Castro worked spent months defending him while criticizing the people trying to hold him accountable.
According to investigators, the incident began on January 14 when Castro was pursuing Alfredo Aljorna through Minneapolis. Aljorna ran into his home, and Castro fired a shot through the front door of the occupied residence, striking Julio Sosa-Celis in the leg.
That same night, Castro told investigators he acted in self-defense after being attacked for several minutes by three men armed with a shovel and a broom.
Based on Castro’s account, federal prosecutors charged both Sosa-Celis and Aljorna with assaulting a law enforcement officer.
Then surveillance footage surfaced.
A Minneapolis police camera captured the encounter, which lasted roughly 12 seconds. Investigators found no evidence of the prolonged attack Castro described. The charges against the two Venezuelan men were dropped, and prosecutors concluded that Castro had not only wounded an innocent man but had also filed a false police report.
When Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged Castro this month, ICE responded by calling the case “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt.”
Castro was placed on leave and later left Minnesota. Authorities eventually located him in Texas, where he was arrested Friday morning with assistance from the Texas Rangers and the DHS Inspector General.
Castro is the second ICE agent charged by Moriarty’s office over conduct connected to Operation Metro Surge. Another agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., faces assault charges for allegedly pointing a gun at motorists on a highway and also has an active arrest warrant.
Moriarty described Castro’s arrest as “a critical step forward.”
After months of investigations, legal challenges, and disputes between agencies, Friday’s arrest marked the latest development in a case that continues to draw significant attention in Minnesota and beyond.
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