U.S. Border Patrol arrests three Romanian nationals linked to Balkan Mafia

U.S. Border Patrol agents in the San Diego Sector arrested three Romanian citizens near Oceanside, California, after discovering they had entered the United States illegally from the Canadian border.

During the stop on Interstate 5, authorities identified one of the men as a member of the Balkan Mafia, a transnational criminal organization involved in large-scale cocaine trafficking to Europe. The individual also had an active arrest warrant in Virginia regarding illegal credit card use.

Investigations further linked the group to the theft of a Rolex watch from a YMCA locker room in Los Angeles County in August. The three men have been transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to begin deportation proceedings.