ST. THOMAS — A man born in the Dominican Republic was arrested by federal agents after a vehicle registration lookup revealed his identity.
A multi-agency task force was conducting surveillance on June 26, when they spotted a green SUV in the parking lot of a McDonald's on Route 313. The agents, using the Bureau of Motor Vehicles database, found that the SUV was registered to Antonio Elias Ovalle Castro, a national of the Dominican Republic.
Using the information gleaned from the BMV, agents then queried national immigration databases, discovering that Castro was not in the United States legally. They followed the vehicle until the TotalEnergies gas station in Time Center, and then arrested Mr. Castro and the other occupant of the vehicle to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility on Crown Mountain.
There, Castro was discovered to have been deported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2011. He reportedly told agents that despite being born in the Dominican Republic, he was a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis. Agents say he admitted to coming to the territory through St. John in 2023, without going through the required legal process. Castro was thus duly charged.
In court on Friday, prosecutors asked U.S. Magistrate Alan Teague to detain Castro pending trial, deeming him a “serious flight risk.” Castro reportedly has entered the U.S. at least twice before, in 2003 and 2010. Both times, he is said to have presented fraudulent identification documents. A hearing on the matter is set for Monday.
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