By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square
Another foreign national illegally in the country and on a Texas Department of Public Safety “Most Wanted List” has been arrested.
Fabian Martinez Toribio, a 25-year-old Mexican citizen illegally in the U.S., was captured on July 31 in the Austin suburb of Round Rock, Texas.
Through investigative work and a series of leads, members of Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Division and U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force found and arrested him.
Martinez Toribio has a criminal history. In April 2018, under the Trump administration, he was first apprehended after illegally entering the country from Mexico. He was arrested and convicted of entry without inspection and removed from the U.S.
He then reentered the country illegally, believed to be among millions of gotaways, those who illegally enter the country between ports of entry to avoid capture. They don’t make asylum or other immigration claims and seek to avoid law enforcement, Border Patrol and Texas Operation Lone Star officials have explained to The Center Square.
Many are believed to be involved in criminal activity and associated with cartels and gangs.
By October 2023, Manor Police Department officers arrested Martinez Toribio for resisting arrest and possession of a controlled substance. In Democratic-controlled Travis County, he bonded out of jail and went on to allegedly commit crimes.
By January 2024, the Austin Police Department issued a warrant for his arrest for aggravated sexual assault of a child. By February 2024, a warrant was issued out of Travis County for his arrest for possession of a controlled substance.
He was taken into custody by DPS special agents and U.S. Marshals and booked into the Williamson County Jail.
Martinez Toribio was the third arrest since the list was launched in June.
The Most Wanted criminal alien list was launched to raise awareness about and help law enforcement find repeat offenders who are in the U.S. illegally and are wanted for allegedly committing dangerous crimes in Texas. Despite appeals for tips through Texas Crime Stoppers, DPS warns Texans to “not attempt to apprehend these fugitives; they are considered armed and dangerous.”
All of the individuals on the list are Hispanic men. The majority are citizens of Mexico, followed by El Salvador and Honduras. They are wanted for a range of violent crimes, including sexual assault of a child, indecency with a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child, smuggling of person, terroristic threat, aggravated robbery, injury to a child, elderly, disabled, among others.
Within less than 24 hours of the list launching, one Mexican national wanted for homicide was arrested in Baytown. One week later, another Mexican national was arrested in Fort Worth. He’d been convicted in Tarrant County of driving while intoxicated with a child under age 15, assault causing bodily injury to a family member, assault, failure to identify/giving false/fictitious information, failing to identify as a fugitive.
As those on the list are arrested, they are replaced with others who are also wanted for violent crimes.
In response to Martinez Toribio’s arrest in Round Rock, a newly elected state representative who represents the area, Rep. Caroline Harris Davila, said, “What happens at the border doesn’t stay at the border. This criminal was roaming free in our community, in my hometown. We cannot afford to have a president who will not secure the border.”
The list states where the fugitives were last seen in Texas, with the number 1 most wanted, Luis Perez Mendoza’s last known address of Conroe, a suburb located an hour north of Houston.
Other last known addresses of criminals on the list include rural suburbs and major cities in Texas: Pflugerville, Irving, Dripping Springs, Spring, Austin, Cleveland, Houston, Marshall and El Paso.
Texas Crime Stoppers is offering cash rewards to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of those on the list. Awards range from $3,000 to $5,000 per individual on the list. To date, no tips have led to the arrests made so far.
To be eligible for cash rewards, tipsters must provide information by calling the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477) or submit a tip through DPS’ website or Facebook tip page. All tips are anonymous.
Texas has borne the brunt of criminal activity stemming from the border.
Through Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star, law enforcement officers have apprehended more than 517,000 illegal foreign nationals and made more than 45,700 criminal arrests, with more than 39,600 felony charges reported. They’ve also seized more than 506 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill the combined populations of the United States and Mexico.
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