A Chicago man has been indicted on charges he solicited the murder of U.S. Border Patrol field boss Gregory Bovino, but the bare-bones document makes no mention of previous allegations that he is a high-ranking gang member.<\/p>\n
Juan Espinoza Martinez, 37, of Chicago, was arrested last week and charged with one count of solicitation of murder-for-hire, which carries up to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n
The one-page indictment handed up by a federal grand jury on Tuesday charges him with the same count.\u00a0U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez had set a preliminary hearing for Wednesday, but that was canceled due to the filing of the indictment.<\/p>\n
An arraignment was set for 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.<\/p>\n
The initial criminal complaint filed earlier this month alleged Martinez was a high-ranking member of the Latin Kings street gang and was marshaling gang resources to go after Bovino, who was not specifically identified as the target.<\/p>\n
Indictments are a finding of probable cause by a grand jury, and are not required to re-allege every fact made in a criminal complaint to keep them part of the overall prosecution. But the absence of any allegations of gang involvement in Martinez\u2019s indictment was conspicuous, particularly given all the attention the case has received from Department of Justice officials.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for Martinez said in a statement last week that not only is he not a high ranking Latin King, as alleged by the government, he has no gang affiliation at all, and no prior criminal history.<\/p>\n
Martinez, a longtime Chicago resident and father of three, was arrested at the construction site where he was working long hours to support his family, his relatives and lawyers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJuan has resided in the United States for 30 years, and throughout his time in Chicago, he has had no prior criminal history or gang affiliation,\u201d the statement said. \u201cAs a dedicated union member, Juan as consistently worked to provide for his family while contributing positively to the community; he even coaches his kids\u2019 sports teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his initial appearance in court earlier this month, prosecutors said Martinez is not a U.S. citizen. They sought to keep him held without bond as a flight risk and danger to the community, and Martinez\u2019s lawyers have waived any detention hearing for the time being.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint filed Oct. 5, Martinez, a ranking member of the Latin Kings, told a law enforcement source after an immigration agent shot a woman in the Brighton Park neighborhood \u201cthat he had dispatched members of the Latin Kings to the area of the 39th and Kedzie \u2026 in response to the shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n
A day later, the source showed a screenshot to law enforcement that had been sent to him by Martinez depicting a conversation Martinez had with an unknown individual, according to the complaint. In that conversation, Martinez allegedly said \u201clets get some guys out here bro.\u201d The other person wrote back, \u201cLet one of us be in front with the (green gun emoji)\u201d the complaint stated.<\/p>\n
The law enforcement source also shared Snapchat messages that Martinez had sent him saying, \u201c2k on information when you get him\u201d and \u201c10k if u take him down,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
The message also stated \u201cLK on him,\u201d which was a reference to the Latin Kings, the complaint alleged.<\/p>\n
Included in the message was a photo of Bovino, who has recently participated in immigration enforcement operations in Chicago on behalf of the U.S. Border Patrol, according to a law enforcement source and the complaint, which identifies Bovino only as a senior Border Patrol official.<\/p>\n
In a guest appearance on Fox News\u2019 Sean Hannity last week, Bovino addressed the charges without identifying himself as the target of the alleged plot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a war zone out there,\u201d Bovino said about Chicago. \u201c(DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned a bounty on the heads of federal agents. That $2,000 to kidnap, $10,000 to kill senior Border Patrol officials and senior ICE officials here in Chicago. Now, Sean, what happens between the kidnapping and the killing portion? That\u2019s something out of a third-world country. Is this America?\u201d<\/p>\n
When someone posted later on X that the bounty was allegedly for Bovino, he responded through his X account: \u201cYou just might be right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, federal leaders have tried to use Martinez\u2019s case to allege that it is part of a coordinated effort by criminal gangs to go after immigration officials, though they\u2019ve offered no further evidence.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin referenced the allegations on Fox News, saying it was evidence of a \u201ccoordinated, highly organized waging of war against our law enforcement and a terror campaign against them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dThey\u2019re now handing intelligence over to these cartels, these criminal gangs, to go after our law enforcement,\u00a0 harass them, dox them, kidnap them and, god forbid, kill them.\u201d<\/p>\n
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 15, 2025 at 11:25 AM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Chicago man has been indicted on charges he solicited the murder of U.S. Border Patrol field boss…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":306233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5295,5386,1818,409,1370,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-306232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}