2 days ago
Man arrested by federal agents charged with 'possession of a firearm while being an illegal alien'
More details came to light in the federal arrest of an undocumented Milwaukee man on a gun charge, whose arrest sparked fears among some of a broader immigration operation on the city's south side.
A criminal case was unsealed June 11 against Herber Tzoy-Tzoy, who appeared in federal court the same day for a charge of possessing a gun while being illegally in the United States.
Tzoy was initially arrested by Milwaukee Police in September 2024 for driving under the influence and possession of a handgun.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms took the case on in December and arrested Tzoy at his apartment on South 22nd Street on June 10. He is now in custody of the Kenosha County Sheriff.
Magistrate Judge William Duffin didn't approve bail for Tzoy at his federal court hearing on June 11.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's previous report regarding Tzoy's arrest named his alias, Mario Torres.
Tzoy crashed a Dodge pickup truck into parked cars along West Burnham Street in September. His blood alcohol concentration was more than twice the legal limit, Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene records showed.
An officer found a handgun and five empty beer bottles on the driver's side floorboard, the federal criminal report says.
According to the charges, a Guatemalan identification card with the name Eliseo Us-Ixcotoyac was found by officers. Tzoy told officers that was his "fake name" for work. Tzoy confirmed his name with his Guatemalan birth certificate at his November municipal court hearing.
Department of Homeland Security doesn't have records of Tzoy entering the U.S. legally, federal prosecutors say.
An arrest warrant was issued for Tzoy on March 17 after he didn't appear in Milwaukee County Court that day for those charges.
Voces De La Frontera and Diego Castro, Tzoy's brother-in-law, say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took Tzoy into custody on June 10.
Castro, who lives in a neighboring unit, said about 10 or 15 agents with the bottom half of their faces covered pounded on all four units in the apartment building. The agents said they had a warrant for Castro's wife's name, too, he said.
The U.S. Marshal's office confirmed about 10 agents were knocking on doors of Tzoy's neighbors as the agency typically does in such cases, said Scott Keller, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The agency was only there to assist in the arrest of that man.
He said he could not speak for the size of other agencies' response.
'To say that's a large response, that would be false,' Keller said. "It shouldn't be characterized as a heavy response, simply because this is our normal operations.'
The agency assisted in multiple arrests across the city on June 10, Keller said.
Tzoy's attorney Joshua Uller wouldn't confirm if ICE was involved in Tzoy's arrest.
Tzoy's next court date is June 24 at 3:30 p.m.
Gina Castro is a Public Investigator reporter. She can be reached at gcastro@
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Federal agency charges immigrant with possession of a firearm
