(NewsNation) — The Department of Homeland Security arrested a woman in Los Angeles who was wanted for a 2013 murder in Moldova.
Victoria Sorocean was arrested by federal immigration officers on Nov. 4. She and an accomplice were convicted in Moldova on murder charges in 2013, and she was sentenced to 17 years in prison. According to DHS, Sorocean and her accomplice “tortured their victim” with a “stick and electric cable before throwing the victim out of a ninth-floor window.”
In an attempt to evade her prison sentence, authorities said Sorocean fled to the United States, where she was first arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in January 2020. Sorocean managed to delay her removal from the U.S. by filing a series of appeals and asylum claims. She was released from custody in 2022, officials said.
“These are the types of barbaric criminal illegal aliens ICE is targeting every single day. Seventy percent of all ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “This does not even include foreign fugitives like this convicted murderer. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, the world’s criminals are no longer welcome in the U.S.”
Sorocean will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.