ICE says its officers arrested six men who were in the country illegally in Woodstock Friday, with at least one of the men taken into custody in the parking lot of an auto shop where an FBI SWAT team later carried out a drug trafficking arrest.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement to Lake and McHenry County Scanner on Wednesday that its officers conducted “targeted enforcement operations” in Woodstock on Friday.
McHenry County Rapid Response said a man was arrested by ICE in the parking lot of Woodstock Automotive Service, 725 Lake Avenue in Woodstock, around 8 a.m. Friday.
A photo of that arrest, provided by the business owner, showed one of the agents wearing a “POLICE ICE” vest.
ICE said officers “identified and encountered” Alex Francisco Diaz-Quintanilla, 47, whom the agency described as a “criminal illegal alien” from El Salvador.
Diaz-Quintanilla was convicted of a weapons offense in 2024, according to ICE.
Officers also arrested Israel Espinal-Diaz, 48, of Mexico; Daniel Nehemias Martinez-Esteban, 30, of Guatemala; Lazaro Cruz-Morales, 43, of Mexico; Gabriel Martinez-Quintanar, 26, of Mexico; and Jayson Josiel Ruiz-Figueroa, 23, of Honduras, the statement said.
ICE described each of the five men as an “illegal alien.”
ICE did not say whether all six men were arrested at the auto shop or at separate locations in Woodstock, or whether any of the men worked at the business.
McHenry County Rapid Response said it also received a report of ICE agents at Emricson Park, 1313 Kishwaukee Valley Road in Woodstock, around 12:35 p.m. Friday, but the group said its investigators were unable to confirm ICE was present after the suspected vehicles quickly left the park.
Around 10:30 a.m. Friday, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Illinois State Police carried out a federal arrest warrant at Woodstock Automotive Service with support from the FBI, the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office and the Woodstock Police Department, a DEA spokesperson said.
An FBI SWAT team was deployed and the City of Woodstock asked residents to avoid the area of Kimball Avenue and Lake Avenue for approximately two hours.
The DEA spokesperson said the warrant was part of an ongoing federal drug trafficking investigation and indicated it was unrelated to the “immigration enforcement activities in the area” earlier that morning.
Genaro Bahena-Arellano, 50, of Carpentersville, who is listed as one of three managers of Woodstock Automotive Service LLC in Illinois Secretary of State records, was arrested during the SWAT operation.
He was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois with one count of knowingly and intentionally distributing a controlled substance containing cocaine.
A DEA special agent said in an affidavit that investigators identified Bahena-Arellano as the leader of a drug trafficking organization operating in the northern Illinois area and said that he sold about 4.5 ounces of cocaine, which field-tested positive for fentanyl, to a confidential source in a back room of the shop on July 17.
Bahena-Arellano is being held in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
A detention hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael F. Iasparro at the federal courthouse in Rockford.
The six men arrested by ICE remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings and “will receive due process under federal law,” the agency said.
“Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure using the CBP Home app,” ICE said, adding that the federal government is offering $3,000 and a free flight to those who self-deport.
“If not, you will be arrested and deported without the chance to return,” the agency said.
Jail records show Ruiz-Figueroa, Cruz-Morales, Espinal-Diaz and Martinez-Esteban are being held in the Clay County, Indiana, Jail, while Diaz-Quintanilla is being held at Miami Correctional Center in Indiana. Martinez-Quintanar’s location is unknown.
McHenry County Rapid Response said those who know someone who has been detained by ICE should call the ICIRR Family Support Network at 855-435-7693.