Federal, state and local authorities arrested more than 500 people identified by ICE as illegal aliens during an immigration enforcement operation in the Fort Myers area, including suspects accused of violent crimes and other serious offenses. By yourNEWS Media Newsroom. More than 500 people identified by federal authorities as illegal aliens were arrested during a sweeping multiagency immigration enforcement operation in southwest Florida, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The operation was conducted in the Fort Myers area from Aug. 24 through Aug. 27, bringing ICE together with state and local law enforcement agencies for a concentrated enforcement effort targeting people subject to immigration enforcement. ICE released details of the operation, saying authorities took more than 500 people into custody during the surge. The agency also published photographs, nationalities and criminal histories for 10 additional people arrested during the operation. Among the arrests highlighted by ICE were several involving allegations of serious violent crimes. Noe Lux Castro | Guatemala Castro, who has been charged with obstructing a law enforcement officer of his means of protection, resisting an officer with violence, and resisting an officer without violence, took a Florida state trooper’s Taser and attempted to use it against the Trooper during his apprehension. Olmen Noel Vargas-Mendoza | Honduras Vargas-Mendoza illegally reentered the U.S. without inspection three times and has a history of domestic violence. Marlon Rolando Calderon-Castellon | Honduras Calderon-Castellon reentered the United States without inspection after being removed and has a criminal history that includes battery and illegal drug possession. Carlos Humberto Monzon-Cabrera | Guatemala Monzon-Cabrera has a criminal history that includes battery and multiple convictions for operating a motor vehicle without a valid license Hermenegildo Andres-Juan | Guatemala Andres-Juan reentered the U.S. after being deported and has a criminal history that includes driving under the influence, resisting arrest, hit-and-run, and public order crimes. Armando Coc-Yat | Guatemala Coc-Yat has a criminal history that includes arrests for driving under the influence and hit-and-run. He was issued a final order of removal in 2021. Rigoberto Vargas-Resendiz | Mexico Vargas-Resendiz reentered the U.S. three times after being deported. He was issued a final order of removal in 2011. Daren Ruiz-Mejia | Venezuela Ruiz-Mejia reentered the U.S. after deportation and has a criminal history that includes driving under the influence of liquor. Melchor Perez-Garcia | Guatemala Perez-Garcia reentered the U.S. after a prior removal and has a criminal history that includes driving under the influence, resisting an officer, and obstruction without violence. Samuel Mateo-Francisco | Guatemala Mateo-Francisco reentered the U.S. three times after being deported. “The Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrested a criminal illegal alien from Haiti with six charges associated with premeditated murder, and ICE and the Florida Highway Patrol arrested a Mexican cartel member and a Honduran accused of molesting two children,” ICE said. The enforcement action relied on cooperation among federal, state and local agencies, an approach Florida has increasingly used as it expands its involvement in federal immigration enforcement. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the arrests demonstrated how the state has implemented immigration policy through partnerships between different levels of law enforcement, particularly under the federal 287(g) Task Force Model. “Florida continues to demonstrate how to turn important policy into meaningful action,” DeSantis said. “We have created an unprecedented law enforcement model that has turned Florida, under the 287(g) Task Force Model, into the most proactive and effective state in identifying, apprehending and deporting illegal immigrants who have intentionally avoided lawful immigration processes and committed horrific crimes within the United States.” DeSantis said those arrested during the southwest Florida operation included people accused or convicted of offenses ranging from violent crimes against children to attacks on law enforcement officers. “Among the 500 illegal immigrants arrested on this operation alone were subjects accused or convicted of premediated murder, sexual abuse of minors, domestic violence, battery on law enforcement officers and driving under the influence. We will not sit idly by and allow Floridians to be victimized. Rather, we are executing on a whole-of-government approach that engages federal, state, and local law enforcement to get the job done and keep Florida safe and free.” The operation represents the latest example of Florida authorities working directly with federal immigration officials to identify and arrest people suspected of violating U.S. immigration laws while also targeting individuals with alleged or documented criminal histories. The 287(g) program referenced by DeSantis provides a framework for cooperation between ICE and participating state and local law enforcement agencies, allowing designated officers to carry out certain immigration enforcement functions in coordination with federal authorities. The Fort Myers-area surge placed that coordinated enforcement model into practice over several days, with participating agencies conducting arrests throughout southwest Florida. ICE’s description of the arrests underscored the criminal allegations connected to some of those taken into custody, including the Haitian national facing six charges associated with premeditated murder, the person identified by authorities as a Mexican cartel member and the Honduran national accused of molesting two children. Not everyone arrested during an immigration enforcement operation necessarily faces the same circumstances or criminal allegations, but ICE highlighted the criminal records and accusations associated with several of the people detained as part of its announcement. The operation also reflects Florida’s broader reliance on coordination among federal, state and local agencies as part of its immigration enforcement strategy. For DeSantis, the arrests demonstrated what he described as a “whole-of-government approach” designed to combine state resources and local law enforcement capabilities with federal immigration authority. By the conclusion of the Aug. 24-27 operation, authorities had arrested more than 500 people in the Fort Myers region, making the southwest Florida effort a substantial multiagency immigration enforcement action and providing another test of the state-federal enforcement structure Florida has expanded under the 287(g) model.