WashingtonU.S. federal officials announced Thursday that renowned Mexican boxer Julio C. Sarvez Jr. had been arrested for unlawfully entering the country and will be sent back to Mexico, where he is accused of organized crime.
Days have passed since the former middleweight champion’s defeat at the hands of Jake Paul in Anaheim, California, when he was arrested.
According to Chvez’s lawyer Michael Goldstein, the 39-year-old boxer was hauled up by numerous federal officials while he was riding a scooter in front of his Studio City house.
According to Goldstein, the latest accusations are ludicrous and just another headline designed to scare the public.
As immigration arrests have increased, many Southern Californians are on edge. This has led to protests and the government deployment of U.S. Marines and National Guard forces to downtown Los Angeles.
Goldstein stated that they were scheduled to appear in court on Monday regarding gun possession charges from the previous year and to give an update on Chvez’s progress in a substance treatment program, but he did not know where he was being held as of Thursday morning.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested Chvez for overstaying a tourist visa that expired in February 2024 after he entered the nation in August 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
ICE claimed that despite being warned by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services last year as a serious public safety risk, Chvez was permitted to return to the nation on January 4.
According to officials, he is suspected of being a member of the Sinaloa Cartel and has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and the trafficking of explosives, firearms, and ammunition. The Attorney General’s Office in Mexico has not yet responded to the Associated Press’s inquiry regarding the charges.
On April 2, 2024, Chvez applied for a green card, according to the Trump administration, on the basis of his marriage to Frida Mu oz, a U.S. citizen and the ex-partner of Dgar Guzm n L Pez, the now-deceased son of imprisoned Sinaloa cartel lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman.
According to the agency, Chvez was arrested because he made several false representations in his application.
Before his Saturday fight with Paul, Chvez had only fought once since 2021. He had experienced countless low points during a long boxing career spent under the shadow of his father, one of the most adored athletes in Mexican history, a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame who had won titles in multiple weight classes.
The kid, who has been extensively chastised for his sporadic devotion to the sport, has served bans, failed drug tests, and egregiously missed weight.
He nevertheless achieved great success, taking home the WBC middleweight title in 2011 and successfully defending it three times. Chvez faced generational heavyweights Sergio Martinez and Canelo Ivarez in the ring, but he lost to both.
After spending a significant portion of his career struggling with drug addiction, Chvez visited a Sinaloa rehabilitation center and declared himself clean for the Paul fight. Preparing for the match, he appeared to be in the greatest physical condition he had been in years.
Before his battle with Paul, Chvez told the Los Angeles Times that he and his trainers were afraid of the immigration arrests.
I don’t understand why there is so much violence in this circumstance. Chvez stated, “There are many good people, and you’re setting an example of violence for the community.” I wouldn’t want to be deported after everything that has transpired.
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Carlos Rodriguez, a Mexico City-based Associated Press journalist, contributed to this article.
