U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced in a press bulletin that its San Antonio office arrested 57-year-old Mexican national Alfonso Sanchez-Elorza on September 26. He was previously convicted in Boise, Idaho, of methamphetamine distribution and sentenced to 176 months in prison.
According to ICE, the arrest of Sanchez-Elorza is part of its “Worst of the Worst” initiative, which targets criminal noncitizens who pose public safety risks. The agency said that Sanchez-Elorza was taken into custody by the San Antonio field office following his federal drug-trafficking convictions in Boise. This effort underscores ICE’s strategy of working with prosecutors and local partners to locate previously convicted offenders for immigration enforcement, aligning with Enforcement and Removal Operations’ (ERO) mandate to prioritize threats tied to narcotics trafficking and community harm.
The ICE profile provides specific details: age 57, citizenship in Mexico, arrest on September 26, and a sentence of 176 months for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine after conviction in Boise. These particulars illustrate ICE’s focus on felony drug cases with significant sentences, which the agency presents as high-impact public-safety actions within its removal priorities and targeted operations across field offices such as San Antonio.
Federal sentencing data indicate that methamphetamine trafficking results in some of the longest average terms in the system. In Fiscal Year 2024, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported an average meth-trafficking sentence of 100 months, with 97.6% of defendants receiving prison time. This benchmark places Sanchez-Elorza’s 176-month sentence well above the national mean, reflecting aggravating factors or guideline applications often seen in large-scale distribution schemes. Such figures are frequently cited by enforcement advocates to justify robust targeting of narcotics traffickers.
ICE was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C., as a Department of Homeland Security agency tasked with protecting national security and public safety through criminal investigations and immigration enforcement. Its two principal components are Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and ERO. HSI targets transnational crime networks, while ERO manages identification, arrest, detention, and removal of removable noncitizens, with field offices including San Antonio executing priorities focused on criminal offenders and public-safety threats.