An illegal immigrant accused of murder has been apprehended in the United States, over a decade after allegedly torturing and throwing a victim from a balcony in her native Moldova.
Victoria Sorocean, a 40-year-old Moldovan national, was arrested on November 4 in Los Angeles. She had previously entered the U.S. under the Biden administration’s policies.
Convicted of intentional murder in September 2013, Sorocean fled to the United States, where she managed to live undetected until her initial arrest during President Trump’s term on January 10, 2020.
In the intervening years, Sorocean exploited various legal avenues to avoid deportation, including seeking asylum and filing numerous appeals with the Board of Immigration Appeals, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Despite these efforts, she was temporarily released back into the U.S. two years later under the Biden administration’s oversight, until her recent capture by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week.
Described as a “barbaric criminal,” Sorocean and an unidentified accomplice allegedly tortured their victim inside an apartment in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.
The pair beat the victim with a stick and an electrical cable, then threw them to their death out of a ninth-floor window.
Sorocean was convicted and sentenced to 17 years for committing murder with premeditation and exceptional cruelty – but never served her time.
Victoria Sorocean, an illegal immigrant from Moldova, has finally been arrested after she fled to the US after being convicted of torturing and murdering a victim in 2013
After her arrest during Trump’s first administration, Sorocean was released back into the US under former President Joe Biden. (Pictured: ICE agents in Camarillo, California in July)
The killer was pictured handcuffed in the back of a federal vehicle – sporting blonde highlighted hair, a pink manicure, heavy eyeliner and a Converse T-shirt.
She gripped a water bottle in between her handcuffed hands and hung her head in shame.
According to records, Sorocean was living at a three-bedroom home valued at $1.2 million in North Hollywood before she was apprehended by ICE last week.
‘It shocks the conscience that the Biden Administration released into America a cruel, violent illegal alien who tortured a human being, beat them with an electrical cable and a stick, and then threw her victim from a ninth-floor window,’ DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said following Sorocean’s arrest.
‘These are the types of barbaric criminal illegal aliens ICE is targeting every single day. 70% of all ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.
‘This does not even include foreign fugitives like this convicted murderer.
‘Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, the world’s criminals are no longer welcome in the U.S.’
Sorocean will remain in ICE custody until her removal proceedings, the agency said.
The Daily Mail contacted DHS, ICE and Sorocean’s attorney for comment.
The Trump administration is in the midst of a record-breaking crackdown on illegal immigration, one of his key pledges during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Last week, the number of detainees in ICE custody reached 66,000, the highest ever recorded.
Pictured: A street view of the home in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, that Sorocean was living in before she was arrested by ICE
ICE’s detainee population has surged nearly 70 percent since Trump began his second term in January, when around 39,000 people were being held.
The current total surpasses the previous peak of about 56,000 detainees in 2019 during Trump’s first term, according to data analyzed by researchers at Syracuse University.
But it is actually President Barack Obama’s administration that holds the record for most deportations.
During his two terms from 2009 and 2016, Obama removed roughly 3 million people from the US, earning him the nickname ‘Deporter-in-Chief’ among immigration critics.
Deportations peaked in 2012, when around 409,000 people were removed.
By comparison, Trump is estimated to have deported around 1.5million people during his first term.
