A Salvadoran immigrant who has been under a final deportation order since 2024 was previously apprehended at the Texas border in 2016 and later released on bond before being arrested last week on allegations that he distributed fentanyl near a Virginia high school, the Department of Homeland Security said.
Isaac Melendez-Carranza, 31, was taken into custody on Aug. 20 and charged with distributing fentanyl within 1,000 feet of a school. He remains held without bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.
“ICE lodged a detainer on August 20 for Isaac Melendez-Carranza, an illegal alien from El Salvador, with the Loudoun County Jail,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News.
According to DHS, an immigration judge issued a final order of removal for Melendez-Carranza on July 18, 2024.
Less than a month after that order, Melendez-Carranza was encountered in Sterling, Virginia, on Aug. 16, 2024, but no enforcement action was taken, DHS said.
The department attributed the lack of action to policies under the Biden administration.
Melendez-Carranza was first arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Hebbronville, Texas, on May 3, 2016, after illegally crossing into the United States through the Rio Grande, DHS said. He was released on bond on July 13, 2016, according to the department.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said in May that Melendez-Carranza had been identified as a suspected drug dealer linked to overdoses involving students at Park View High School.
Deputies seized about 100 pills and approximately $1,000 in cash during a search of his home, FOX 5 DC reported.
Multiple students had been hospitalized following suspected overdoses at Park View High School in May, the outlet said.
Loudoun County Public Schools confirmed at the time that two students suffered nonfatal suspected overdoses during school hours.
Additional students were taken to a local hospital for evaluation after exhibiting symptoms, district officials said.
The school system noted that it was unclear whether the incidents were connected and could not immediately confirm whether controlled substances were involved.
Sheriff Mike Chapman called the case particularly alarming because the illicit drugs were reaching local students.
The sheriff’s office said Melendez-Carranza will be turned over to ICE after he is released, Fox 5 DC reported.
“He’s here illegally,” Chapman said. “I think he came in about 10 years ago. We shouldn’t be here and maybe if he wasn’t here this would not have happened, so we take that quite seriously. There is a detainer on him from ICE, so once he is done with his charges here, he will be released to ICE.”
The sheriff’s office said more arrests are possible, but there was no timetable.
Chapman confirmed ICE placed a detainer on Melendez-Carranza, who will be transferred to federal immigration authorities after his local criminal charges are resolved.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst. Nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” DHS said.
