An illegal immigrant faces multiple felonies after the Clare County Sheriff’s Office alleges he purchased a vehicle through Facebook Marketplace using fake $100 bills.

Victor Julio Tellaria-Sanchez, 36, purchased the car from a Harrison woman at her residence on New Year’s Day for $3,600, paying in 36 $100 bills, the sheriff’s office alleges in a press release cited by the Clare County Cleaver.

“A short time after the male left with the vehicle, the victim took the bills to a gas station where a counterfeit pen was used on the bills,” the release read. “Several of the bills that were tested showed the bills were fake. Once the victim learned the bills were fake, she attempted to contact the male, however the account of this male had been deactivated.”

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The victim reported the scam to the sheriff’s department around 10:14 p.m. Deputies confirmed all 36 bills were fake, then put out a broadcast to other law enforcement agencies to locate the stolen vehicle.

The next day, officers with St. Joseph County’s Three Rivers Police Department located and stopped the vehicle, then identified Tellaria-Sanchez as a passenger, WNEM reports.

“It was further determined that (Tellaria-Sanchez) was a non-US citizen who was in the United States illegally,” according to the Clare County Sheriff’s Office, which did not provide the suspect’s country of origin.

Three Rivers police arrested Tellaria-Sanchez and held him at St. Joseph County Jail, before he was later transferred to Clare County Jail by the sheriff’s department, according to WJRT.

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Tellaria-Sanchez was charged with two felony counts, one for larceny by false pretenses over $1,000 but under $20,000, a 15-year felony, as well as uttering and publishing counterfeit notes, a five-year felony.

Tellaria-Sanchez was arraigned on those charges in Clare County District Court on Friday, when his bond was set at 10% of $50,000, cash or surety. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also placed a detainer on Tellaria-Sanchez, who remained in Clare County Jail on Tuesday, WJRT reports.

The case is only the latest of numerous thefts and scams by illegal immigrants in Michigan over the last year.

Just last month, a Chinese national in the country illegally attempted to scam an elderly Canton woman by posing as her bank’s “senior fraud investigator,” Canton police allege.

In conversations over four days in December, Li Biao, 30, allegedly convinced the woman to withdraw large sums from her account, and arranged for a “co-worker” to pick up the cash from the 85-year-old woman’s home on two occasions.

Biao was arrested on a third attempt to collect $25,000 after the victim’s family intervened.

“This is a tragic example of elder exploitation financial abuse, with the suspect(s) defrauding and stealing from the victim by taking advantage of her vulnerability due to age,” Canton Police Support Services Capt. Joseph Bialy said in a statement cited by The Detroit News.

Also in December, Novi Police arrested Vania Herrera Valdes, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from Chile, after officers allegedly chased her and others from a home burglary on Equestrian Trail, WJBK reports.

The arrest followed at least eight burglaries at high end homes in the area over the prior week. Authorities believe the crimes involve highly trained crews of transnational gang members who have worked together to ransack numerous luxury homes in Oakland, Wayne, and Kent counties in 2023 and 2024.

The most recent burglaries occurred just over a month after Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Victoria Valentine sentenced two of five suspected illegal immigrants involved in a home invasion in Troy over the summer.

Other illegal immigrants were busted in June for their alleged involvement in an organized retail theft ring that plundered tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise from grocery and clothing stores in Auburn Hills and Bloomfield Township.

In October, an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic was charged with two larceny felonies and two misdemeanors after police in Troy allege he swiped numerous iPhones off porches in Metro Detroit.

Yohangel Martin Polanco Melo, 23, was arrested during a traffic stop and arrested after he was identified through images captured on home surveillance systems.

“The driver, Polanco Melo was arrested wearing the same Amazon vest, bucket style hat and surgical mask observed in the numerous surveillance videos/images,” Troy Police wrote in a post to Facebook. “Officers recovered several iPhones that were inside the vehicle along with several empty boxes.”

Several Michiganders also lost their lives to illegal immigrants in 2024 in crimes some argue would have been prevented under President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Trump has promised to prioritize illegal immigrant criminals in what’s expected to be the largest deportation effort in U.S. history following his inauguration to a second term later this month.

Data from ICE released in September shows there’s currently more than 662,000 illegal immigrants on the agency’s docket who have criminal convictions or charges pending.

Those criminals, the vast majority free to roam the U.S., include 13,099 convicted murderers, 15,811 convicted of sexual assaults, 162,231 convicted of assault, 56,533 with dangerous drug convictions, 5,797 convicted of fraud, 18,234 convicted of larceny, 14,301 convicted of burglary, 13,423 with weapons convictions 10,031 convicted of robbery, 9,461 with non-assaultive sexual convictions, 2,521 kidnappers, and 217 convicted of extortion.