The St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday afternoon that an illegal 25-year-old immigrant wanted for criminal sexual conduct with two girls under the age of 13 is in custody.

The illegal is charged with one count of first-degree home invasion and two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct (person under the age of 13). His name will not be released until he is returned to St. Joseph for arraignment.

“We don’t release their names until they’re arraigned, so he is currently still in the state of Indiana,” St. Joseph County Undersheriff Jason Bingaman told The Midwesterner. “We have started that extradition process again back into Michigan.”

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He is being held on an Immigration Detainer.

Law enforcement from St. Joseph, Fort Wayne, Ind., and Indianapolis cooperated in the apprehension of the illegal, who had been staying in Sturgis before committing a home invasion in the Sweet Lake Mobile Home Park on March 20. St. Joseph deputies investigating the break-in also discovered the two females were sexually assaulted.

“Subsequent inquiry led deputies to a person of interest,” according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office. “Video surveillance footage of a vehicle that was suspected to be involved in the incident was also located and deputies identified the suspect vehicle and owner.”

Before they could make an arrest, the suspect fled to Fort Wayne.

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‘What had happened was we had established him as a person of interest and our detectives were waiting to get a hold of him so that we could continue the investigation,” Bingaman said, whom he referred to as a “dangerous predator”.

“Our investigators spent several days down in Fort Wayne working with them and helping them,” Bingaman said, referring to the Fort Wayne Police Department. “Obviously we don’t have jurisdiction in another state. This investigation took us from Fort Wayne to Indianapolis and back to Fort Wayne and so we had several partners that came together to take this guy off the street.”

Once the location was identified, deputies initiated a continuous surveillance operation in the Fort Wayne area, with the assistance of several other law enforcement agencies.

Bingaman said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was involved from the time the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office obtained its arrest warrant for the illegal.

“If we have an individual in our community who’s sexually assaulting small children we cooperate with anybody and everybody we can to get that person off the street,” Bingaman said about working with ICE.

“As far as the detainer, that decision wasn’t made until he was in custody.”

Bingaman explained that extradition to Michigan would take approximately 48 hours if the suspect waived his extradition rights.

“We’re going to have to acquire a governor’s warrant to get him back here and that can take some time,” he said, referring to another law enforcement phrase for an extradition warrant.

Bingaman also credited the Sturgis Police Department, the Fort Wayne Police Department, St. Joseph County Central Dispatch, Indiana State Police, Michigan State Police, Indianapolis Metro Police and their Violent Crime Task Force Team, TSA, ICE, FBI, Homeland Security, and Chucks Towing for assistance in nabbing the illegal immigrant.