Christian Castro, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged federally this week for lying to investigators about the shooting of a Venezuelan man during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, reportedly turned himself in Thursday to federal authorities.
Federal charges, which remain sealed, were revealed Thursday, just one week after Castro, 52, was released from a Texas jail. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had refused to sign an extradition warrant requested by Minnesota authorities seeking to prosecute Castro on separate charges stemming from the January 2026 incident in north Minneapolis.
"We haven't had any direct communication with the U.S. Attorney's Office that they have or were indicting," Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. "We were certainly hearing the same rumors from media and others that it was in process for quite some time."
In statement posted to social media on Thursday evening, Moriarty wrote, "We've been informed that Christian Castro is now in custody in Texas. We expect he will appear in federal court in Texas, and a date will be set for him to appear in federal court in Minnesota. Despite Gov. Abbott's best efforts to shield Mr. Castro, we will see him soon."
Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis had initially been accused by federal authorities of beating an officer with a broom handle and snow shovel during the confrontation. During that incident, Castro allegedly fired his gun through a door and shot Sosa-Celis in the leg. Those charges against Sosa-Celis were later dropped after video evidence showed officers had lied about the encounter.
Earlier this week, ProPublica reported that the Justice Department had blocked a push to bring more serious civil rights charges against Castro..
"I think the issue is that rather than charge him with civil rights violations, plus whatever charges are about lying, they just chose to go with that," Moriarty said. "What I'm understanding is there's been a fairly big struggle between main justice, perhaps the administration, and the U.S. Attorney's Office and the local people who work in the office."
Moriarty, who spoke with WCCO Radio before Castro reportedly turned himself in, said several outcomes are possible under the new federal charges.
"He will probably have a right to have a detention hearing, either in Texas or in Minnesota. If he has the detention hearing in Texas, the judge would have to decide whether to detain him or not. If they decide not to detain him, that's a possibility given the fact he hasn't been charged with a violent offense, if he was let out, he'd be given a court date in Minnesota," Moriarty said. "The moment he came into Minnesota, or we became aware of him being here, he would be arrested on our case as well because we still have an active warrant. If he is detained in Texas, they would bring him up here. Our warrant is active and then we'd be having a conversation with the U.S. Attorney's Office about who would be prosecuting first."
Castro is reportedly expected to make a court appearance Friday in Texas. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
The Department of Homeland Security called the case against Castro “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt."
Castro was released a week ago after a federal judge refused to order Texas to extradite him to Minnesota
Castro was released a week ago after a federal judge refused to order Texas to extradite him to Minnesota
