Pam Bondi Shares New Details on Judge Accused of Harboring Gang Member

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has revealed new details about a former judge who was arrested after a suspected Tren de Aragua gang member was detained at his home.

Judge Joel Cano “admitted post-Miranda [rights] he took one of the TDA member’s cell phones… beat it with a hammer, destroyed it, and walked the pieces to a city dumpster to dispose of it, to protect him,” Bondi told Fox News on Friday.

Newsweek has reached out to Cano, via Doña Ana County Magistrate Court, for comment.

The Context

Former Democratic judge Cano and his wife Nancy are accused of hosting three people with links to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TDA) gang at their New Mexico home, according to federal authorities.

Among them was Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, who was detained for being in the U.S. illegally, according to FOX14.

Tren de Aragua has been in the spotlight since President Donald Trump declared it a foreign terrorist organization as part of his major crackdown on illegal immigration into the U.S.

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks with reporters at the White House, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Evan Vucci/AP

What To Know

Joel and Nancy Cano were detained by federal agents during a raid on their New Mexico home on Thursday.

Joel Cano has been charged with obstruction, while his wife was charged with destroying evidence, according to Bondi.

Trump’s attorney general said on Friday that not only had Joel tried to “protect” a gang member by destroying his phone, but the married couple had given him “assault rifles that belonged to their daughter” and taken him to a shooting range.

Bondi said that one of the men who was staying at the Canos’ home had visible signs of a link to the Venezuelan gang TDA, including “a necklace that said ‘kill,’ something about death, [and] he had tattoos all over him.”

She told Fox News that he also had a cellphone with pictures of two decapitated victims.

“This is the last person we want in our country,” she said. “Nor will we ever tolerate a judge or anyone else harboring them.”

Joel Cano, who resigned last month after more than a decade as a judge at Doña Ana County Magistrate Court, has been permanently barred from ever serving on a New Mexico bench again.

The Supreme Court of New Mexico ordered that the former judge “can never hold a judicial office again, be a candidate for a judicial office, and cannot exercise any judicial authority in the state, including officiating at weddings,” according to Fox News Digital. The court had also been set to hear oral arguments on disciplinary cases, but the hearing was canceled.

A Homeland Security probe launched in January found that Ortega-Lopez—who illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico in December 2023—was living with other undocumented migrants at the Canos’ property and had access to firearms.

“Social media evidence showed Ortega-Lopez in possession of multiple firearms at a shooting range in Las Cruces,” the Justice Department noted. “It is unlawful for any illegal migrant to be in possession of a gun in the U.S.”

Investigators said that Ortega-Lopez met Nancy Cano while doing handyman work. When he was evicted from his apartment, she invited him to move into a guesthouse on her property.

On February 28, investigators served two search warrants at a property identified as belonging to Nancy Cano. Ortega-Lopez and his roommates were arrested and agents seized four firearms from the home of April Cano, Nancy and Joel’s daughter.

What People Are Saying

Former ICE field office director John Fabbricatore told local network WPMI: “Doña Ana County has been a hotbed of illegal immigration and drug trafficking, human smuggling for many, many years. To see that a judge would allow this to happen. It’s very concerning. It’s concerning. What else has the judge been doing?”

In his resignation letter to 3rd Judicial District Chief Judge Conrad Perea, Cano wrote, “Working with each of you has been a very rewarding experience for which I will remain eternally grateful.”

Amy Barela, chairwoman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, said in a statement shared with Newsweek. “The people of New Mexico are tired of a system where the powerful don’t play by their own rules. We demand real accountability for Judge Cano’s connection to a gang-affiliated criminal and full transparency on how our judiciary is being held to the same laws as the rest of us. Enough is enough.”

President Donald Trump, in a proclamation regarding Tren de Aragua, said: “Tren de Aragua is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”