A Venezuelan man faces a potentially lengthy prison sentence after he broke into an ATM in Holland Township on Sunday and led authorities on a high-speed chase, police allege.
Angel Eduardo Mavarez-Romero, 26, was arraigned Tuesday on felony safe breaking and fleeing and eluding charges over an ATM break-in at Lake Trust Credit Union on West Shore Drive, WOOD reports.
Deputies responded to a report of a man breaking into an ATM at the credit union around 3 a.m., with the suspect fleeing the scene in a silver Ford Fusion.
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Deputies located the vehicle turning from Greenly Street onto northbound U.S. 31, and the suspect took off in a high-speed chase. The vehicle eventually crashed into the median of U.S. 31 near Barry Street in Olive Township, and the suspect fled on foot, according to the Grand Haven Tribune.
Authorities established a perimeter with the help of Holland Police and called in a K-9 unit, which tracked down Mavarez-Romero hiding under industrial equipment, according to the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office.
Mavarez-Romero was booked into the Ottawa County Jail, where he remained in custody on a $60,000 bond following his Tuesday arraignment. Safe breaking comes with a potential life sentence in Michigan, while fleeing and eluding is a felony with a potential prison sentence of two to 15 years, depending on the circumstances.
Ottawa County officials described Mavarez-Romero as a Venezuelan national living in Chicago, WOOD reports.
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Ottawa County Sheriff’s Capt. Jake Sparks told The Midwesterner investigators are working to confirm whether Mavarez-Romero is in the country illegally.
Mavarez-Romero is next scheduled to appear in court for a probable cause hearing on March 11, followed by a preliminary exam scheduled for March 18, WWMT reports.
The case is the latest of many involving foreign nationals committing brazen or heinous crimes in West Michigan in recent years, including several involving murder, sexual assaults, and deadly car crashes.
The day before Mavarez-Romero’s arrest, previously deported illegal immigrant from Mexico Gilberto Hernandez-Mendez murdered his girlfriend’s mother and injured two others in a shooting spree at an Alpine Township home, police allege.
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Earlier this month, 32-year-old illegal immigrant Joel Quintana-Dominguez was ordered to stand trial over allegations he repeatedly sexually assaulted children, including his own daughter.
In May 2023 illegal immigrant Luis Bernal-Sosa gunned down the mother of his young child, 22-year-old Leah Gomez, while she was sitting in her car with the child in the back seat. Bernal-Sosa, a Mexican national, was sentenced to life in prison with no option for parole in April 2024.
A month later, previously deported illegal immigrant Brandon Ortiz-Vite murdered Grand Rapids’ Ruby Garcia with an illegally purchased handgun before dumping the woman’s body alongside U.S. 131 and fleeing in her car. Ortiz-Vite, a Mexican national deported by Trump in 2020, was sentenced in November to 39 years in prison.
Garcia’s murder occurred the same month Grand Rapids Police charged Dominican illegal immigrant Louis Angel Otanez-Castello with multiple felonies in a hit-and-run that claimed the life of 53-year-old Robert Delgado, who was sent 115 feet to his death in the May 2024 crash.
In June, Shelby Township police allege 33-year-old illegal immigrant Jose Medina-Hernandez was driving a box truck on M-59 that “rear ended a Buick Verano which triggered a chain reaction involving two other vehicles.”
Nancy Richmond, 88, and her daughter Crystal Brunn, 63, were in the Buick and killed in the crash that victims said left two cars “cut in half,” the Macomb Daily reports.
In July, previously deported illegal immigrant Severiano Marcos Maximo, 42, was deported again after pleading guilty to three felony charges for attempted criminal sexual conduct involving underage children.
The Mexican national, who was busted by a child predator task force in 2023, had crossed illegally into the U.S. on at least two separate occasions.
It was a similar situation for previously deported illegal immigrant Miguel Angel Aparicio-Navas, 36, who faces felony charges for multiple sexual assaults in Ann Arbor in recent years.
There’s also 25-year-old Miguel Hernandez-Ruiz, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who is expected to stand trial for allegedly sexually assaulting girls under the age of 13 after breaking into a mobile home in Sturgis in March.
Data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement released in September showed 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.