ICE agents arrested a member of the murderous 18th Street gang who has already been removed from the country after illegally reentering six times before.

Officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Boston Enforcement and Removal Operations office arrested a Honduran national as he illegally entered the United States by its northern border with Canada on Feb. 1, the agency said. The Herald has learned this man is Julio Cesar Hernandez Funez.

Hernandez Funez has previously been removed from the U.S. in January 2006, twice in June 2013, in February 2015, in July 2015 and February 2016, according to ICE, which added in a statement that he “has been convicted of DWI, assault and battery, unauthorized use of a vehicle, illegal entry, disorderly conduct and drug trafficking. During an immigration hearing, he admitted he was affiliated with the Sicarios New Yorkers-XV-18 branch of the 18th Street Gang.”

“This unlawfully present Honduran gang member represents a significant threat to the residents of our New England neighborhoods,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons. “Not only is he a self-admitted member of a violent criminal enterprise, but he has also repeatedly defied U.S. immigration laws in order to flee some serious charges in his home country. ERO Boston will not allow New England to become a safe haven for the world’s criminals.”

The 18th Street gang is a decades-old street gang initially started in Los Angeles and known for a long-running and violent rivalry with fellow street gang MS-13.

In addition to Hernandez Funez, ERO agents also recently arrested two convicted sex offenders and a possessor of child pornography.

In Peabody, ERO agents arrested a 52-year-old Brazilian sex offender on Jan. 25 who had recently been convicted of assault and battery and indecent assault and battery. The Herald has learned his name is Giacomo De Simone Neto.

On Jan. 26, they arrested a 26-year-old Salvadoran man in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The registered sex offender, who the Herald has learned is Jorge Adonai Campos Torres, was convicted in Norwalk, Connecticut, for possessing child sexual abuse materials in 2020.

Campos Torres legally entered the United States at Houston in September 2009. ERO lodged an immigration detainer against him with the state Department of Corrections in November 2021, according to ICE, but the Connecticut Department of Corrections released him from prison in February 2022 without notifying ICE.

Also arrested was a 69-year-old Portuguese national convicted of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, who the ERO arrested in Bristol, Rhode Island, on Jan. 19. The Herald has learned that this level-two sex offender is Natalino Moniz.