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Previously Deported Illegal Immigrant Arrested For Allegedly Abducting, Raping Teenage Girl

Lucas County Corrections Center

Matt M. Miller Contributor
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Police arrested and charged an illegal immigrant in Ohio earlier this week for the abduction and alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl from New Jersey. Reports say he has been previously deported.

Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza, 33, was on his way to Chicago in a 2013 Nissan Sentra when Ohio state troopers pulled him over for a failure to move over violation Tuesday, according to the New York Post.

Officers spotted a young girl in Morales-Pedraza’s vehicle and later discerned that he had been sexually abusing her. Police say that neither Morales-Pedraza nor the girl could speak English.

Ohio State Patrol tweeted Wednesday, “During the stop, OSHP says the officer noticed a young female riding with an older male. Police say it was also confirmed that the man had forced the girl to perform acts on him and that the girl was being taken to Chicago from New Jersey.”

Police say that both the girl and Morales-Pedraza are of El Salvadorian descent. When police entered the girl’s information into a missing person’s database, they discovered that she was listed as a missing juvenile. (RELATED: Ohio Prof Squelches Student’s Use Of Term ‘Illegal Immigrant’)

Authorities say that Morales-Pedraza was in the United States illegally and had been previously deported, the Post reports. He has been charged with abduction. Morales-Pedraza is being held in Lucas County Jail in Ohio.