This story was produced in collaboration with Documented.
The detention and deportation of 19-year-old Merwil Gutiérrez Flores to a megaprison in El Salvador earlier this year set off a huge firestorm when it was first reported by Documented because the Venezuelan had no criminal record and a pending asylum application.
But a previously unreported interaction that took place prior to that chain of events is raising further questions: He was arrested by the NYPD on Feb. 24 and detained in a Bronx precinct lock-up on gun charges, according to federal officials, but was never prosecuted.
A day later, the FBI took custody of Gutiérrez Flores and handed him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
City and federal government agencies are saying little about how Gutiérrez Flores went from being detained at the 52nd Precinct on a gun charge to being sent to one of the world’s most notorious prisons without being prosecuted, let alone convicted.
But the episode highlights a vital question about how the NYPD’s routine cooperation with federal law enforcement on criminal matters might aid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, which has marginalized due process at the same time that it has shipped hundreds of deportees to a foreign prison notorious for its brutal conditions and with no timetable for release.
City law forbids the NYPD from coordinating with ICE except on criminal cases. That’s intended to ensure undocumented immigrants in New York City can report crimes, visit hospitals and go to court without fear of being detained or deported.
But the NYPD participates in a number of task forces where its members work alongside agents from federal agencies to investigate anything from money laundering to gun and human trafficking.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security revealed earlier this week that Gutiérrez Flores was charged by the NYPD on Feb. 24 with four counts, including possession of a loaded gun.
A document posted online by DHS says it was the NYPD that arrested him, but a press release from the agency said the arrest was handled jointly by the NYPD and FBI.
A document released by Homeland Security shows the NYPD was involved in the arrest of Merwil Gutiérrez in February. Credit: Illustration by THE CITY via Department of Homeland Security Records
An NYPD spokesperson said records from the incident are sealed, as did a spokesperson for the Bronx District Attorney, and both offices declined to answer specific questions citing that status.
“In this matter, the NYPD, as part of an FBI task force, was solely engaged in a criminal investigation. The NYPD had no involvement in any civil immigration enforcement related to this case,” an NYPD spokesperson wrote in an email, without providing his or her name.
“The NYPD does not engage in civil immigration enforcement, period. As it has for many years, the NYPD works with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies on criminal enforcement matters, including work on federal criminal task forces. That work is critical to getting dangerous individuals out of our communities and keeping our families safe.”
A spokesperson for the FBI’s New York office declined to comment on the agency’s role in the arrest, but spoke generally on the agency’s work with ICE.
“FBI agents routinely engage with ICE as authorized by our lawful ability to investigate and enforce violations of federal immigration law,” the spokesperson said. “FBI New York does not involve the NYPD in our engagement with ICE on these matters.”
A former NYPD officer assigned to a federal task force said sharing custody between the federal agency and the NYPD during a joint arrest is fairly standard, as was the series of events that seem to have occurred in this case.
“The benefit of the task force is to allow versatility in investigations and enforcement,” the source said. “If prosecution is not advanced, all other enforcement options are available.”
But Albert Fox Cahn, the founder and director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said that with the Trump administration shifting federal agents toward civil immigration enforcement, the open sharing of information between the NYPD and the feds poses new risks.
The taskforces, he said, have “always been a loophole large enough to deport someone through, but increasingly we see the ways these can be abused.”
‘Looking for Someone Else’?
Gutiérrez Flores, who lived with his father, Wilmer Gutiérrez, in an apartment on University Avenue, was just getting home with a friend, Angel Blanco-Marin when they were approached by law enforcement, according to a witness who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals.
One of the officers asked Gutierrez-Flores if he was Blanco-Marin, according to the witness. He said no and pointed to his friend, but was arrested anyway, the witness said.
Blanco-Marin, 22, was also arrested and later transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center, Documented previously reported. (Witnesses who previously described the incident believed the arresting officers were from ICE.)
Public records show Blanco-Marin was facing charges in Brooklyn Criminal Court, including a felony charge, from a November incident of reckless driving in an allegedly stolen vehicle that caused a collision.
He missed his last two court appearances, according to a spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Blanco-Marin’s attorney in that case didn’t respond to a voice message seeking comment.
DHS officials said that in addition to the gun possession count, the NYPD charged Gutiérrez Flores with possession of a gun on school grounds, possession of stolen property and an ammunition charge.
The arrest occurred across the street from a church that contains a pre-kindergarten program, which was closed at that time of night.
DHS officials didn’t respond when asked what Blanco-Marin was charged with and which law enforcement entity detained him.
Wilmer Gutiérrez told Documented that he went to the NYPD’s 52nd Precinct to ask if his son was being held there the morning after his arrest, on Feb. 25, and was told by the officers at the precinct that he was.
“They confirmed that he was indeed there and that they were going to take him to court around 3 p.m.,” he said in Spanish. “Of course, I didn’t see him because they didn’t let me, but they told me he was there.”
Wilmer Gutiérrez said the officers wouldn’t say why his son had been arrested.
A grainy video of the arrest, which lasts just four seconds, appears to show that at least two uniformed NYPD officers and a sergeant were involved. Two other law enforcement officers seen in the short clip are wearing street clothes and what appear to be face coverings.
A friend of Blanco-Marin’s previously told Documented that the aspiring musician told him by phone, after being detained, that officers drove him up Fordham Road to the local precinct house. That route appears to be toward the 52nd Precinct.
What remains unclear is when and why Gutiérrez Flores and Blanco-Marin were transferred from the NYPD precinct into FBI custody.
But in the hours after the arrests, the FBI “initiated an investigation in regards to Gutiérrez Flores for ongoing criminal activity,” according to the DHS paperwork.
It goes on to say that around 11:00 p.m. on Feb. 25, about 24 hours after Gutiérrez Flores’ arrest by the NYPD, the FBI’s New York office turned him over to ICE, which arrested him “pursuant to a Warrant for Arrest of Alien.”
The DHS press release calls Gutiérrez Flores a “Tren de Aragua (TdA) associate,” referring to the Venezuelan prison gang that the Trump administration has deemed a terrorist entity. The press release says Gutiérrez Flores was removed to CECOT on March 15.
The press release and document provide no evidence of his association with the gang, which has been the main claim used by the Trump administration against many of those shipped to the Central American prison.
But the administration has offered little evidence of gang affiliation of those sent to CECOT beyond tattoos, which experts on the gang have repeatedly said are not a reliable way to identify members.
Gutiérrez Flores has no criminal record in New York, where he has lived since 2023, and no tattoos. His family and lawyer continue to dispute he has any affiliation with the Venezuelan gang.
“Nothing they’re saying is true,” his father said in Spanish. “They were looking for someone else.”
William Parra, an immigration attorney from Inmigración Al Día — the law firm representing Gutiérrez Flores’s case — said he’s still trying to find out what happened.
“The facts are still not clear, but we are doing an active investigation on this,” he said. “But the fact remains that there is little to no evidence of Merwil being part of Tren de Aragua.”
The court did not provide Parra with the DHS document when initially reviewing the case. For that reason, he emphasizes, “Merwil was detained for hanging out with friends and was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Carla Colome contributed additional reporting.
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The post Arrested by the NYPD but Not Prosecuted, They’re Now Imprisoned in El Salvador appeared first on THE CITY – NYC News.
