ST. CHARLES -- An illegal immigrant and sexual offender was arrested in St. Charles by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office as part of a sting operation aimed at capturing predatory criminals.
Juan Carlos Mosqueda-Gasca, a citizen of Mexico, was taken into custody Monday by Winona County deputies for failing to register as a sex offender. Mosqueda-Gasca was deported in November 1999 after being convicted in Winona County of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a 12-year-old girl. He was 16 at the time.
The arrest was part of Operation Predator, an ongoing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiative to protect children from pornographers, child prostitution rings, Internet predators, alien smugglers, human traffickers and other predatory criminals.
Mosqueda-Gasca remains in custody in Winona County.
