“I turned over there,” Flores said, pointing behind him to the plaza with Sabor Peruano, “because we were going to the gas station.” He referenced a station across the street, also in the opposite direction from where his vehicle was headed.
Flores’ pickup truck was one of several pulled over in what Fairfield police called a targeted operation in response to criminal activity at Sabor Peruano, a restaurant and nightclub off Ohio 4. That targeted operation netted 39 arrests, 34 of which were in the parking lot of the establishment. The other five arrests were through nearby traffic enforcement.
The Fairfield officer asked, “If you were going to go to the gas station, why didn’t you go to the gas station?”
“I already turned, sir,” Flores said. “I’m just dropping off my girlfriend.”
Flores was pulled over because he failed to use a turn signal exiting the parking lot and entered the wrong lane (vehicles are to enter the closest lane turning into traffic).
Credit: Fairfield Police Department
After a couple-minute conversation, the Fairfield officer took Flores’ license and the identification card of Marlen Ortiz-Soto, a 24-year-old, who would later be forcibly removed from the pickup truck by federal agents because they had “probable cause that you (Ortiz-Soto) are here illegally.”
“Right now, you need to get out of the vehicle,” said an agent with a U.S. Department of Homeland Security protective vest. “Or else we’re going to have to make you get out of the vehicle.” Flores, who was holding up a cellphone, could be heard asking multiple times saying, “I know my rights” and demanding the agent to “please identify yourself.” The agent said he had already done so.
After being asked to step out of the vehicle, the Homeland Security agent, as well as one from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, opened the door and forcefully removed her from the vehicle.
She was placed in handcuffs and taken to the Butler County Jail and has been held on a holder for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In a recent interview with our news partner, WCPO, Flores said his girlfriend, a Honduran native, was scared and begged him not to let them take her.
“She was holding on to my hand, I was holding on to hers ... I tried to stop them,” Flores said to WCPO.
Ortiz-Soto’s attorney, Krishna Mehadevan, told WCPO his client has no connection to Sabor, and her family came to the United States in 2019, submitting their first asylum application in January 2020.
Flores told the Cincinnati TV station, “The violence problem in Honduras kept rising and rising. So that’s why they decided to come here to the United States.”
In addition to the traffic citation, Flores was charged with obstructing official business, for trying to prevent federal agents from detaining Ortiz-Soto. Both the criminal and traffic cases are being heard in Fairfield Municipal Court. However, he failed to appear for both cases on Wednesday morning, according to court records. A failure to appear notice was sent and an arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 16.
The Aug. 16 operation was in response to years of problems at Sabor Peruano, Fairfield Police Chief Steve Maynard told the Journal-News.
In 2021, Fairfield police met with the ownership to discuss the problems and asked them to get their patrons under control. Maynard said patrons were the cause of complaints of fighting, driving while intoxicated and property damage, among other issues.
In 2022, there was a stabbing, and in early June and late July, there were a pair of shootings. An arrest was made in the June 8 shooting.
Credit: Fairfield PD
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