An illegal alien from Mexico — arrested and released TWICE under Obama and Biden — was finally brought to justice after an ICE DNA collection cracked a case investigators had been chasing for 11 years.
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Leonel Catalán-Torreblanca, an illegal alien from Mexico believed to be 51 years old, was arrested on April 22, 2026, in Indianapolis after his DNA — collected during an ICE immigration investigation — matched profiles from five separate sexual assault cases spanning March 2013 to January 2024. He now faces 30 felony charges, including rape, sexual battery, kidnapping, criminal confinement, strangulation, and burglary. ICE has lodged an immigration detainer demanding Indiana authorities not release him under any circumstances.
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WHAT HAPPENED
For over a decade, women living near an apartment complex at East 96th Street and North College Avenue in Indianapolis were targeted by a predator investigators couldn’t identify. Local and federal authorities knew the same attacker was responsible — DNA from five separate crime scenes matched — but without a suspect in the CODIS federal database, the case went cold again and again.
That changed when ICE conducted an immigration enforcement action and collected a DNA swab from Catalán-Torreblanca. The Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency entered it into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) — and it matched all five crime scenes immediately.
Within FOUR HOURS of that match being confirmed, IMPD’s Violent Crimes Unit tracked Catalán-Torreblanca to a relative’s house and took him into custody. He made his first court appearance on April 27. His jury trial is currently scheduled for July 21.
When interviewed by detectives, Catalán-Torreblanca reportedly admitted that “his anger and frustration caused him to do what he did” — and when asked directly what he did, his response was: “Oh, you know.”
He now faces what Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears called “the most serious charges we are able to file in the state of Indiana.”
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WHAT THEY’RE NOT TELLING YOU
This arrest should have happened YEARS ago — and it would have, if the Obama and Biden administrations had done their jobs.
DHS confirmed to Fox News that Catalán-Torreblanca was first arrested by ICE in 2012. The Obama administration released him. He continued living in the United States — and according to prosecutors, began his sexual assault campaign just one year later in 2013.
ICE arrested him again in 2017, under the first Trump administration. He voluntarily returned to Mexico in 2018. Then, in 2023, under the Biden administration’s open-borders disaster, he illegally re-entered the United States — a federal felony — and resumed his attacks. His last documented assault occurred January 24, 2024.
His criminal history before the rape charges wasn’t clean either. DHS confirmed prior convictions for patronizing a prostitute, voyeurism, and multiple DUIs. This was not a man hiding in the shadows with no record. He was KNOWN. He was caught. And he was set free — TWICE — by administrations more concerned with optics than American women’s safety.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
FBI Director Kash Patel called the takedown a result of “tremendous work across the board.” He’s right. But Americans need to understand what made this case possible — it wasn’t a Democrat-run city finally getting tough on crime. It was ICE doing its job under a president who actually lets them do it.
For eleven years, these five women carried the weight of what was done to them while the man responsible walked free — protected, in effect, by two administrations that refused to enforce immigration law. The DNA was always there. The crime scene evidence was always there. What was missing was Catalán-Torreblanca’s profile in CODIS — because a misdemeanor DUI doesn’t trigger a DNA swab. Only an ICE immigration enforcement action did.
This is exactly why border enforcement isn’t just about the border. Every illegal alien in this country who has never had their DNA entered into federal databases is a potential gap in public safety. ICE isn’t just removing people — they’re solving crimes. They’re finding predators that local law enforcement couldn’t touch because the system was deliberately kept broken.
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OUR TAKE
Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said it plainly: “This demented rapist’s ten-year crime spree is over.” It’s over because Trump gave ICE the mandate to do their job. It’s over because the DNA collected in an immigration raid cracked a case the open-borders crowd would have preferred stay cold.
Five women in Indianapolis are finally getting justice. But let’s be honest about what this means: for every Catalán-Torreblanca behind bars today, ask yourself — how many are still out there whose DNA has never been entered into CODIS? How many cases are sitting cold right now because Obama or Biden let someone walk?
Should Leonel Catalán-Torreblanca ever be allowed to set foot on American soil again after he serves his sentence? Drop your thoughts below. Yes or no? 🇺🇸🔥