Customs officials in Phila. deport Mexican gang member

A Mexican man described by police as a career criminal has been deported after flouting U.S. border laws for more than a decade, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Philadelphia said Thursday.

Osvaldo Pineda Bonilla, 41, of the Surenos "Crazy Katz" gang, who spent time in prisons from California to Pennsylvania, was handed over to Mexican authorities Wednesday after being led in handcuffs across the border at Brownsville, Texas.

He reportedly was wanted in Mexico on weapons charges.

He "demonstrated a total disregard for the law," said Thomas Decker, Philadelphia director of ICE removal operations, whose agents found Bonilla at the U.S. Penitentiary in Allenwood, Pa. He was serving a sentence for illegally entering the United States four times since 1997, and committing felonies here. Philadelphia ICE agents took him into custody on July 10.

Such individuals, said Decker, "present a clear and present danger to the U.S."

Bonilla was deported before - on July 30, 1997 - but reentered on an unknown date and remained at large. In 2005 he was convicted of possession with intent to distribute narcotics and sentenced to four years in federal prison.

Officials said his removal demonstrates "expanded bilateral cooperation" to identify, arrest and repatriate Mexican fugitives who flee to America to avoid prosecution.