Immigration agents arrested a man from India accused of having international criminal connections and an apparent fondness for guns after his release from the San Joaquin County Jail earlier this month, authorities said.
Gurdev Singh, 23, was arrested March 12 following a weeklong stint in the local jail in French Camp. Identified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a “criminal alien,” Singh will be deported, the San Francisco office of Enforcement and Removal Operations said.
ICE said officers first encountered Singh in September 2023 in the Mexican border town of Lukeville, Arizona. Like others making illegal crossings at the time, Singh was released from custody with orders to appear before an immigration judge, federal agents said.
“Singh was later identified as a person known to be associated with transnational criminal organizations,” ICE said in a release, “and further investigation showed Singh was known to carry firearms illegally and was actively engaged in criminal activity in both the U.S. and abroad.”
When ICE authorities went looking for Singh, they found him in the San Joaquin County jail. The California Highway Patrol had arrested him a week earlier. He was booked on suspicion of carrying a loaded gun in public, not being the registered owner of the gun, possession of a stolen vehicle and child endangerment, ICE said. Authorities said he was living in Stockton.
Although San Francisco’s acting ICE Field Office Director Polly Kaiser said the agency “welcomes partnerships between federal and local law enforcement,” the statement on Singh was careful to point out that the agency did not find that cooperation in San Joaquin County. Sheriff Patrick Withrow, along with the Stockton Police Department, both have policies of not cooperating with immigration officers.
Still, that did not prove to be a problem when it came to Singh’s apprehension. ICE agents waited until he was released from the San Joaquin County jail and arrested him upon his release. In a subsequent search of his Stockton home, authorities said they found seven guns in the house and two in a car on the property.