A 29-year-old man from Guatemala is facing a federal criminal charge after prosecutors say he resisted and assaulted officers during an immigration arrest last week.
Manolo Morales Lopez is charged with a single count of forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating, or interfering with federal officers while they carried out official duties, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley’s office said in a statement. Morales Lopez made an initial appearance in federal court on Sept. 12 and was released on conditions.
On the morning of Sept. 12, members of an immigration enforcement task force, comprising two special agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a Homeland Security Investigations agent and an Enforcement and Removal Officer, approached a Jeep SUV being driven by Morales Lopez in Woburn.
The agents told Morales Lopez they had a warrant to arrest the woman in the passenger seat of the vehicle. Morales Lopez asked to see the warrant, then said if the agents took the woman into custody, they would have to take him as well, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.
As the agents attempted to remove the woman from the car, Morales Lopez “leaned toward the woman and began holding onto her arm, preventing her removal,” Foley’s office said.
The agents repeatedly warned Morales Lopez he could be subject to arrest if he continued to interfere with the arrest of the woman. Agents eventually tried to remove Morales Lopez from the car, according to the statement.
After the agents successfully got Morales Lopez out of the car, prosecutors say he raised his arm up and over the head of one of the agents, grabbing him around the neck from behind. The agent ducked under Morales Lopez’s arm to avoid being put in a chokehold or headlock, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say Morales Lopez continued to resist and struggle as they attempted to put him in handcuffs.
Morales Lopez’s Sept. 12 arrest came amid an immigration enforcement surge in Massachusetts that federal officials have dubbed “Operation Patriot 2.0.”
His arrest follows the charging of two other people with the same crime.
Eddy Rafael Matos-Lara, a 35-year-old man from the Dominican Republic, was indicted in September in connection with an incident in June. Prosecutors say he “forcibly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, or interfered with federal officers while the agents were engaged in the performance of their official duties.”
Another man from the Dominican Republic, 29-year-old Cesar Pena Pimental, is accused of the same thing in connection with an incident on June 16.
The charge of forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating, or interfering with federal officers engaged in the performance of official duties carries a sentence of up to eight years in prison.
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