Man caught hiding anti-Trump materials after violent ICE facility ambush attack

A man charged with tampering with evidence in connection to the ambush on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Texas allegedly tried to conceal anti-government and anti-Trump documents. 

Authorities were led to Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada – who ICE said is a green card holder from Mexico and a former DACA recipient – following a jailhouse phone call placed by one of the alleged attackers busted on the Fourth of July. A group of between 10 and 12 individuals are believed to have graffitied vehicles and shot fireworks at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. Between 20 and 30 rounds were fired at a police officer and DHS correctional officers outside. 

Upon his arrest, ICE said that law enforcement “found literal insurrectionist propaganda, titled ‘Organizing for Attack! Insurrectionary Anarchy.’ 

“According to West Point, ‘insurrectionary anarchism is regarded as the most serious form of domestic (non-jihadi) terrorist threat,'” ICE posted on X Thursday. “This man was granted legal status through the DACA program and then given a green card under the Biden administration in 2024.”

Marciela Rueda is one of seven of the alleged attackers whom law enforcement caught wearing “black, military-style clothing, body armor, and covered in mud” while attempting to flee the scene on foot, according to court documents. 

Rueda placed two phone calls from the Johnson County Jail on July 6 – one to her mother, whom she told in Spanish to contact Sanchez, and another to Sanchez directly. She allegedly told Sanchez in English to tow her vehicle from the street of a Dallas address that investigators determined was used as a “staging location” before the group proceeded to the Prairieland Detention Center, which is being used to hold people related to immigration violations or awaiting deportation.  

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The vehicle was registered to Rueda’s residence in Fort Worth. Rueda told Sanchez, “whatever you need to do, move whatever you need to move at the house,” according to an FBI affidavit. 

Sanchez allegedly said he had already been to the house in Fort Worth, and investigators believe Sanchez thought the house had not yet been searched by police. 

Sanchez’s parents told FBI agents that he splits time between living with them in Dallas and with Rueda in Fort Worth, according to the complaint. ICE sources previously told Fox News that Sanchez is the husband of one of the alleged attackers. 

An FBI surveillance team went to an address in Garland, in the Dallas area, associated with Sanchez and his parents. They said they had observed Sanchez carrying multiple packages outside and to his pick-up truck. 

He then fueled up at a nearby gas station and drove to an apartment complex in Denton, unloaded a box from the bed of the truck and left it outside a second-floor apartment, according to court documents. 

While executing a search warrant on the apartment in Denton, federal law enforcement found what appeared to be the same box Sanchez had been carrying. It contained “a handwritten training, tactics, and planning document for civil unrest with anti-law enforcement, anti-government, and anti-Trump sentiments.” The complaint included a photo of the box’s contents, including flyers that read, “War in the Streets.” “It’s Vacant, Take it!,” and “Another Critique of Insurrectionalism.”  

Denton police arrested Sanchez during a traffic stop. He is accused of having “knowingly and willfully altered, destroyed, mutilated, or concealed a record, document, or other object, or attempted to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding,” according to the complaint. 

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Federal prosecutors on Monday announced charges, including attempted murder of a federal officer, against Rueda and nine others: Cameron Arnold, also known as Autumn Hill; Savannah Batten; Nathan Baumann; Zachary Evetts; Joy Gibson; Bradford Morris, also known as Meagan Morris; Seth Sikes; Elizabeth Soto; and Ines Soto. All 10 are U.S. citizens, authorities said. 

Sanchez, a Mexican national, was charged in a separate complaint with conspiracy to tamper with evidence, a felony offense. 

A twelfth individual, Benjamin Hanil Song, was charged on Wednesday and remains at large. The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to Song, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist wanted in connection with the July 4 ambush. 

According to court documents, Song purchased four of the guns that were found in connection with the shooting, including an AR-15-style rifle found in the back of a van driven by Morris while fleeing the scene of the attack. 

A Johnson County Sheriff’s Office detective conducted a traffic stop on Morris while he was fleeing the scene alone. Inside the vehicle, law enforcement also found a pistol, two Kevlar ballistic-style vests and a ballistic helmet, according to court documents. Morris also allegedly had a loaded magazine in his pocket that matched the pistol and a handheld radio in his possession. 

He allegedly told investigators that he had driven himself and three others from Dallas to the ICE detention center and the plan was to “make some noise.” 

Morris said he heard about the event through a Signal group chat he was invited to after attending a protest years ago, court documents say.

Song also allegedly purchased the pistol found in Gibson’s backpack when she was fleeing the scene on foot, authorities said. 

An Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck outside the ICE facility during the attack and is expected to survive. 

Fox News’ Brooke Taylor contributed to this report.